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CHEMICO-PHYSIOLOGICAL' 
INAUGURAL  DISSERTATION 


ON 


CARBONE. 


A 

CHEMICO-PHYSIOLOGICAL 
INAUGURAL    DISSERTATION 

ON 

CARBONE,  or  CHARCOAL. 


SUBMITTED  TO  THE  PUBLIC  EXAMINATION 
OF       THE 

FACULTY    OF    PHYSIC, 

UNDER    THE    AUTHORITY    OF    THE 

TRUSTEES  OF  COLUMBIA  COLLEGE, 

IN       THE 

STATE  OF  NEW-YORK: 
WILLIAM  SAMUEL  JOHNSON,  LL.D.  Prefidentt 

FOR.    THE    DEGREE    OF 

DOCTOR    OF    P  H  Y  S  I  Cj 

ON  THE  FIFTH  DAY  OF  MAY,  1 79^- 


By  WILLIAM  MORREY  ROSS, 

Citizen  of  the  State  of  New-Jerfey. 


'  C{  Ea  quje  fcimus,  pars  minima  eorum 
Qjae  ignoramus." 
Prjeitat  naturx  voce  doceri  quam  ingenio  fuo  fapere.  CiC» 

Late,  when  the  mafs  obeys  its  changeful  doom, 
And  finks  to  earth,  its  cradle  and  its  tomb, 

with  nice  eye  the  flow  folution  watch, 

With  foftering  hand  the  pai  ting  atoms  catch, 
Join  in  new  forms,  combine  with  life  and  fcnfe, 
And  guide  and  guard  the  tranfmigrating  Ens. 

DARWIN. 


NEir-  YORK: 

PRINTED    BY    T.   AND    J.   SWORDS, 
Printers  to  the  Fatuity  of  I'hyfic  of   Columbia  Cullcgr, 

—  I79S-— 


T  O 

SAMUEL  LATHAM  MITCHILL,  M.D. 

Profejfor  of  Chemifry  and  of  Botany  in  Columbia  College, 

Fellozv  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh, 

Foreign  AJfociate  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Arts  and  Sciences  at  Cape 

Francois, 

Member  of  the  Philofophical  Society  at  Philadelphia, 

Of  the  Royal  Medical,  Chemical,  Natural  Hijlory  and  Phyfcal 

Societies  of  Edinburgh, 

Secretary  of  the  Agricultural  Society  of  the  State  of  New-  York, 

&c.  &c.  &c. 

Who  has  ever  manifefted,  during  my  refidence  with  him,  the 

moll  friendly  attention,  and  given  every  affiftance  in  forming 

the  outlines  of  my  medical  education;  and  who,  it 

is  hoped,  will  receive  this  Inaugural  Ejfay,  with  all 

its  imperfections,  as  a  memorial  of  efteem 

and  refpeft,  from  his  friend  and  pupil, 

Wm.  M.  ROSS. 


TKE    HONOURABLE 

JOHN  CHETWOOD,  Ef$\ 

One  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  Nezv-Jerfey^ 
&c.  &c.  &c. 

Whofe  moral,  intellectual  and  juridical  endowments  are 
of  eftablifhed  pre-eminence; 

AND 

AARON  OGDEN,  Efqj 

In  whom  are  united 
The  COUNSELLOR  and  the  PATRIOT; 

Will  alfo  receive  this  infcription  as  a  refpedlful  tribute  to  pre- 
eminent literary,  profeffional  and  patriotic  merit. 

The  AUTHOR. 


A 

CHEMICO-PHYSIOLOGICAL 
INAUGURAL   DISSERTATION 

O  N 

CARBONE,  or  CHARCOAL. 


JL  HE  following  pages  are  divided  into  four  chapters : 

I.  The  pure  and  Ample  fubftance  of  carbone,   or 
charcoal,  is  treated  of. 

II.  Its  natural  and  chemical  hiflory. 

III.  Its  ceconomical  ufes ;  and, 

IV.  The  fubject  of  carbone  is  confidered  medically. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Of  the  pure  andfimple  fubftance,  carbone  or  charcoal. 

CARBONE,  or  pure  charcoal,  is  that  fubftance 
which,  in  chemical  nomenclature,  is  placed  among  the 
fimple  bodies,  becaufe  no  experiments  hitherto  made 
have  proved  that  it  is  capable  of  decompofition. 

It  exifts,  ready  formed,  in  the  animal  and  vegetable 
republics,  and  alfo  in  the  mineral,  as  is  inftanced  in 
plumbago  or  the  carburet  of  iron,  &c. 

Charcoal  may  be  obtained  from  vegetable  and  animal 
fubftances,  by  incineration ;  but  their  fubjeclion  Xocalo- 


(     8     ) 

ric,  or  the  matter  of  heat,  muft  at  firft  be  moderate,  and 
afterwards  very  ftrong  -,  and  for  chemical  purpofes,  the 
animal  or  vegetable  fubftances  containing  it  muft  be 
expofed,  in  a  retort,  to  the  heat  of  a  reverberatory  •,  by 
which  means  the  fubftances  capable  of  being  volatilized, 
or  all  the  parts  of  the  fubjecl  fufceptible  of  combination 
with  caloric,  evolve  in  the  form  of  gas,  and  leave  the 
charcoal  and  little  earth  or  faline  bodies,  as  being  of  a 
more  fixed  nature,  in  the  retort. 

This  fimple  fubftance  is  capable  of  great  durability, 
and  not  fubjecl;  to  decomposition  like  thofe  of  the  com- 
pound ones,  as  is  proved  by  its  being  found  unchanged 
in  the  ruins  of  cities,  decayed  forefts,  &c.  during  the 
lapfe  of  ages.* 

Carbone  is  capable  too,  like  many  other  fimple  fub- 
ftances, of  combination  with  the  principle  of  acidity,  or 
oxigene:  in  the  firft  degree  of  oxigenation,  the  carbonous 
acid,  or  oxyd  of  carbone,  is  produced ;  and  if  a  fufficient 
proportion  of  caloric  be  added  to  this,  it  forms  the 
carbonous  acid  gas,  or  the  gafeous  oxyd  of  carbone :  in 
the  fecond  degree  of  oxigenation,  the  carbonic  acid  is 
produced,  to  which  if  a  fufrlciency  of  caloric  be  added, 
it  is  converted  into  carbonic  acid  gas. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Its  natural  and  chemical  hiflory. 

CARBONE  is  the  bafts  of  that  aeriform  fluid  which 
feems  to  have  been  firft  noticed  and  defcribed  by  John 

Baptift 

*  3  Watfon's  Chem.  EiT.  p.  48. 


(     9     ) 

Baptift.  Van  Helmont;  before  whofe  time,  Paracelfus, 
and  authors  previous  to  and  cotemporary  with  him, 
thought  this  gafeous  fluid  to  be  the  fame  with  the  air 
which  we  refpire,  although  it  does  not  appear  they 
were  authorifed  fo  to  imagine  or  conclude,  either  by 
arguments,  and  much  lefs  by  experiments.  It  was  this 
elaftic  vapour  that  is  evolved  from  bodies  by  combuf- 
tion,  fermentation  and  efFervefcence,  that  they  caufed 
to  be  named  fpiritus  fyfoeftris. 

To  this  fpiritus  fylvefiris,  then,  as  the  predecefibrs  of 
Van  Helmont  called  it,  he  took  upon  himfelf  to  affix 
the  name  of  gas,  or  gas  fylveftre,  which  he  defines  to  be 
**  an  incoercible  fpirit  or  vapour,  which  can  neither  be 
collected  in  vefiels,  nor  reduced  under  a  vifible  form.*'* 

This  was  the  ftate  of  knowledge  among  the  chemifts 
of  his  time ;  fince  which,  in  modern  days,  according  as 
it  has  been  found  combined  with  various  fubftances,  it 
has  received  different  titles,  fuch  as  fixed  air,f  mephitic 
air,\fixible  air,%  calcareous  gas, \\  &c.  By  thefe  appel- 
lations it  was  diftinguifhed  until  the  year  1770,  when 
it  was  proved  by  Bergman  to  be  an  acid,^  which  has 
been  more  fully  confirmed  by  Prieftley.  This  difcovery 
of  Bergman  has  occafioned  it  to  be  known  by  the  cre- 
taceous acid,  mephitic  acid,  aerial  and  atmofphosric  acid. 

B  ThaC 


•  ftefmoftttl  Ortu-!   Mr-dlcinnr,  Cap.  Complcr.ionum  atque  mIft:om«m  Elc* 
Bientilium  F/gmenium,   N'u.  14. 
I    Dr.  Hale  . 

t  Mr.  Bewley  and  Dr.  Rutherford. 
^  Ftlcor.er  on  fixiblfl  »ir. 
H  Tl  ( -licmical  D'fti xiaryi 

r  '  '  .  Lir.  p.  3. 


'(     io     ) 

"That  this  fubftance  is  an  acid  was  proved  by  our 
.chemical  profeffor 

i .  Water  impregnated  with  it,  and  agitated  with  the 
-tinclure  of  Jacmus,  or  the  litmus  paper,  turned  them 
-red. 

2.  By  the  precipitation  of  lime,  from  lime-water. 

3.  By  water  being  hi'ghly  charged  with  it,  by  means 
of  Nooth's  apparatus,  which  became  manifeftly  acidu- 
lous to  the  tafte. 

4.  By  its  neutralizing  alkalies,  and  caufing  their 
crystallization.* 

In  a  memoir  to  the  Royal  Academy  of  Paris,  La- 
-voifier  relates,  he  found  by  experiment,  that  a  certain 
■quantity  of  charcoal  burnt  in  a  given  volume  of  vital 
.or  oxigene  air,  decompofed  it,  and  produced  a  gas  ex- 
actly fimilar  to  what  is  called  fixed  air,  compofed  of 
-charcoal,  as  an  acidfiable  bafe  and  oxigene,  and  which, 
-according  to  his  fyftematic  plan,  he  called  carbonic  acid : 
but  the  matter  does  not  reft  on  the  fynthetical  experi- 
ments of  Lavoifier,  for  Tennant  decompounded  the 
•£xed  air  contained  in  marble,  by  the  intervention  of 
phofphorus  into  refpirable  air  and  charcoal  ;-f  however, 
as  they  did  not  appear  altogether  fatisfaclory,  Pearibn 
repeated  them,  and  has  mown,  that  although  the  com- 
pound affinities  on  which  the  refult  depended  did  not 
necejfarily  warrant  the  conclufion,  yet  his  "  well-ima- 
gined experiments  have  in  our  opinion,"  fay  the  re- 
viewers, 

*  For  a  more  circumftantial  detail  of  the  lefts  of  its  acidity,  the  elaborate 
work  of  Cronftedt  may  be  confulted.  (1  Cronftedt's  Mineral.  2d  edit,  by 
Magellan  p.  32c,  art.  Acidum  Aereum.) 

■f  See  Month.  Rev.  vol.  vii.  new  feries,  p.  71. 


c    **    > 

I 

viewers,  "  fo  fully  eftablifhed  the  decompofition  of  the 
fixed  air,  that  we  need  no  longer  hefitate  in  adopting, 
for  this  fluid,  the  name  of  carbonic  acid." 

This  gentleman  employed  the  foflil  and  vegetable 
alkalies  inftead  of  calcareous  earth,  as  the  former  con- 
tain, in  their  mild  ftate,  a  greater  quantity  of  the  fixed 
air,  and  from  their  folubility  in  water  the  charcoal  is  the 
more  eafily  feparable.  By  following  Tennant's  procefs 
with  phofphorus  in  glafs  tubes,  he  obtained  ioo  parts 
of  mild  fofiil  alkali  thoroughly  dried,  eight  of  charcoal 
in  impalpable  powder,  intenfely  black,  and  fo  light  that 
it  occupied  the  volume  of  22  times  its  weight  of  water. 
For  the  production  of  this  quantity  of  charcoal,  the 
alkali  had  loft  fo  much  of  its  fixed  air  as  was  equal,  m 
its  elaftic  ftate,  to  20  ounce  meafures  of  water.  Whci 
the  deficiency  of  air  was  greater  or  lefs,  the  quantity  of 
charcoal  varied  in  the  fame  proportion. 

Quick-lime  and  cauftic  alkalies,  efpecially  the  latter* 
can  fcarcely  be  fo  fully  deprived  of  fixed  air  as  not  to 
exhibit,  in  this  procefs,  fome  veftige  of  charcoal :  but 
alkalies  faturated  with  vitriolic  or  marine  acids  yield 
none,  and  the  quantity  of  charcoal  is  in  all  cafes  pro- 
portional to  that  of  the  fixed  air  contained  in  the  fub- 
ie<ft  and  decompofed  in  the  operation.  Quick-lime 
which  had  undergone  fire  in  a  reverberatory  during  48 
bouts,  appeared  free  from  fixed  air,  and  yielded  no 
charcoal :  but  the  pureft  cauftic  alkali  that  could  be  pro- 
cured was  found  to  contain  three  ounce  meafures  of  fix- 
ed air  to  1 00  grains,  and  gave  a  confiderable  quantity  of 
brownifh  black  powder,  five  times  fpecifically  heavier 

than 


(       12       ) 

than  the  charcoal  in  the  preceding  operations,  and  of 
which  only  a  fmall  proportion  was  real  charcoal.* 

This  acid,  then,  which  is  compofed  of  oxigene,  car- 
bone  and  caloric,  exifts  in  nature  in  three  different  ftates : 

i.  In  a  ftate  of  combination  with  folid  bodies. 

2.  In  a  ftate  of  mixture  with  fluids  -,  and, 

3.  In  a  difengaged  ftate  of  gas. 

I.  It  was  proved  by  Black,  in  1755,  that  fixed  air, 
or,  as  it  is  now  called,  carbonic  acid,  exifts  in  a  ftate  of 
combination  in  lime- ftone,  which,  on  its  difengage- 
ment,  was  converted  into  quick-lime  •,  and  this  doctrine 
was  fupported  by  more  facts  from  the  experiments  of 
Prieftley,  M'Bride  and  Jacquin,  which  laft  added  ftill 
further  proofs  in  confirmation,  by  proving  that  the  cauf- 
ticity  of  alkalies  and  lime  was  owing  to  its  abfence.-f- 

It  exifts  too,  not  only  in  lime  and  alkalies,  but  alfo 
211  ftalactites,  in  the  works  of  animals  called  corallines, 
madrepores,  &c.  and  in  their  teftaceous  coats  or  cover- 
ings ;  and  it  is  believed  by  fome  to  be  a  mere  conge- 
ries of  water-worn  fhells,  compacted  together  by  the 
carbonic  acid,  that  form  the  bafe  of  the  ifland  of  Ber- 
muda, which  has  thus  become  the  habitation  of  man, 
plants  and  animals. 

The  Society  Iflands  mentioned  by  Captain  Cook,  of 
which  Otaheite  is  one,  and  which  is  faid  to  be  fur- 
rounded  by  coral  rocks,  feem,  like  the  former,  to  have 

been 


*  Month.  Rev.  vol.  x.  p.  448.  Phil.  Tranf.  part  ii.  1792. 

-f-  Pure  carbonic  acid  for  medical  purpofes  is  beft  procured  from  the  Spattirn 
Calcareum  of  Cronftedt,  by  means  of  the  fulphuric  acid  5  the  other  acids  being 
3iot  fo  proper,  becaufe  of  their  volatility,  &c« 


c    ft    ) 

been  founded  from  the  exuvial  matter  of  animals ;  and 
thefe  reefs  may,  like  them,  become  alfo  iflands. 

It  has  likewife  been  faid,  that  carbonic  acid  is  the 
vinculum  of  the  human  folid,  which  is  efpecially  af- 
ferted  by  M'Bride,  who  tells  us  he  found  it  conftantly 
produced  on  the  decomposition  of  animal  fubftances. 
No  doubt  he  was  right  in  recommending  for  feamen 
the  ufe  of  malt-wort,  from  which,  in  its  fermenting 
ftate,  carbonic  acid  is  plentifully  evolved;  the  good 
effects  of  which  wort  were  furnciently  proved  in  the 
voyage  of  Captain  Cook,  not  one  of  whofe  men  died 
of  the  fcurvy  alone  :  but  yet  his  opinion  of  its  efficacy 
being  owing  to  the  prefence  of  carbonic  acid,  does  not 
appear  to  prove  that  acid  the  vinculum  of  the  living  folid. 

M'Bride  feems  to  have  been  miftaken  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  his  own  experiments,  by  fuppofing,  that 
our  folids  contained  fixed  air;  whereas,  on  the  contra- 
ry, our  chemical  profeflbr  proved,  that  the  folids  con- 
tain not  the  carbonic  acid,  hut  merely  the  elements,  car- 
'  and  the  -principle  of  acidity,  by  which,  on  their 
decomposition,  it  may  be  formed.* 

II.  Carbonic 


*  The  curious  experiment  by  which  cur  profcfTor  proved  the  compofition  of 
t  .r  rr.ufcuiar  lure  was  by  means  of  the  nitric  acid:  a  pirce  of  the  fibrous 
or  lean  flcfli  of  an  ox  being  expofed,  in  a  moderate  heat,  to  the  operation  of 
id,  there  was  a  production  of  azotic  gas,  and  a  difappearancc  of  the 
beef;  on  fuffering  the  apparatus  to  cool,  a  greafy  fcum  was  found  floating  on 
the  furface  of  the  acid.  In  this  experiment  the  nitric  acid,  by  ;;cu:ng  a  fur- 
charge  of  oxigene  from  the  nVfh,  is  rendered  more  capable  of  decompounding 
it,  for  then  the  -zote,  on  being  more  eafily  difengaged,  unites  with  caloric,  and 
flies  off  in  the  form  of  nitrogene  gatj  which  leave*  the  bydrogehc  and  urbonc 
nbilte  in  the  oiiy  pellicle,   whii.ii,   on  cooling,  ft  rated  mi  the 

the  lean  and  £  of  animal*  convertible  to 'fatt 


(     H     ) 

II.  Carbonic  acid  exifts  in  a  ftate  of  fimple  mixture 
in  many  mineral  waters,  from  which  mixture  fuch  wa- 
ters derive  the  name  of  acidulae,  acidulous,  or  petrify- 
ing fprings.* 

The  Saratoga  fprings,  in  the  ftate  of  New- York,  are 
efpecially  remarkable  for  containing  the  carbonic  acid 
in  this  ftate,  which  acid  may  very  readily  be  colle6ted 
in  the  form  of  gas,  as  is  proved  by  the  following  expe- 
riments of  Mitchill. 

"  A  young  turkey,  held  a  few  inches  above  the  wa- 
ter in  the  crater  of  the  lower  fpring,  was  thrown  into 

convulflons 

Dr.  Mitchill  faid  too  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  confidering  that  the 
iiver-oil  of  fiAes  was  produced  in  the  fame  way:  during  the  fpontaneous  de- 
composition this  organ  undergoes  in  a  moderate  heat,  there  is  an  extrication  of 
the  azote,  which  leaves  the  hydrogene  and  carbone  to  form  the  oil,  there  ap- 
pearing to  be  but  little  oxygene  in  the  liver.  Hence  then  the  great  firmnefs 
of  flefh  is  owing  to  the  very  clofe  affinity  or  attraction  that  the  elementary 
lubftances  oxigene,  azote,  hydrogene  and  carbone  have  for  each  other. 

The  mufciilar  parts  are  not  only  decompofed  artificially  as  in  the  above  ex- 
periments, but  alfo  naturally. 

Mr.  Sneyd  (Phil.  Tranf.  for  1792,  part  ii.}  gives  an  account  of  the  con- 
verfion  of  a  bird  into  a  hard  fatty  matter.  It  was  fuppofed  to  be  a  duck  or 
young  goof?,  and  appears  to  have  undergone  its  change  by  lying  long  buried 
in  the  mud  of  a  Em-pond.  The  /kin  retains  its  original  ilruclure  exactly, 
but  is  in  great  part  feparated  from  the  fleih,  though  both  are  nowcompofed  of 
the  fame  fubftance,  which  is  in  confiftence  like  fpermaceti,  without  tafte  or 
fmell,  melts  in  a  fmall  heat,  though  when  congealed  again,  becomes  more 
folid,  and  looks  like  wax.  For  Fourcroy's  narrative  of  analogous  changes  in 
human  bodies,  in  the  cemetery  des  innocents,  fee  Annales  de.  Chimie, 
vol.  v.  p.  154.;  European  Magazine,  for  June,  1794 5  New-York  Magazine, 
vol.  v.   p.  493  j   Chemical  Nomenclature,  by  Profeffor  Mitchill,  p.  9. 

*  An  account  of  a  curious  fpring  of  this  kind  is  related  in  the  xxth  vol.  of 
the  World  Dtfplayed,  p.  182,  the  water  of  which  fesms  likely  to  contain  iron 
oxydated  by  this  acid,  and  perhaps  with  the  addition  of  a  little  clay,  form- 
ing one  of  the  ochres  of  that  metal.  In  other  kinds  of  petrifying  fprings, 
bird's  nefts,  leaves  of  trees,  &c,  have  been  found  inclofed  in  the  midft  of 
petrifactions. 


(     15     ) 

convulfions  in  lefs  than  half  a  minute,  and,  gafphig, 
mewed  figns  of  approaching  death;  but  on  removal 
from  that  place  and  expofure  to  the  frefh  air,  revived, 
and  became  lively.  On  immerfion  again  for  a  minute 
in  the  gas,  the  bird  was  taken  out  languid  and  mo- 
tionlefs. 

"  A  fmall  dog,  put  into  the  fame  cavity  and  made 
to  breathe  the  contained  air,  was,  in  lefs  than  one  mi- 
nute, thrown  into  convulfive  motions — made  to  pant 
for  breath ;  and  laftly,  to  lofe  entirely  the  power  to  cry 
or  move:  when  taken  out,  he  was  too  weak  to  ftand, 
but  foon,  in  the  common  air,  acquired  flrength  enough 
to  rife  and  ftagger  away. 

"  A  trout  recently  caught,  and  briikly  fwimmingin 
a  pail  of  brook- water,  was  carefully  put  into  a  veffel 
juft  rilled  from  the  fpring:  the  fifh  was  inftantly  agi- 
tated with  violent  convulfions,  gradually  loft  the  capa- 
city to  move  and  poife  itfelf,  grew  ftupid  and  infenfible, 
and  in  a  few  minutes  was  dead. 

"  A  candle,  repeatedly  lighted  and  let  down  near 
the  furface  of  the  water,  was  fuddenly  extinguished, 
and  not  a  veftige  of  light  or  fire  remained  on  the  wick. 

"  Thefe  experiments  nearly  correfpond  with  thole 
ufually  made  iii  Italy,  at  the  famous  Grotto  del  Cani, 
for  the  entertainment  of  travellers,  as  mentioned  by 
Keyfler,  Addifon,  and  others. 

"  A  bottle  filled  with  the  water  and  fhaken,  emits 
fuddenly  a  large  quantity  of  atrial  matter,  that  either 
forces  out  the  cork,  or  makes  :i  way  befide  or  through 
it,  or  burfts  the  vefli 

L<  A  qu 


(     iC    J) 

u  A  quantity  of  wheaten  flour,  moiftened  with  this 
water  and  kneaded  into  dough,  when  made  into  cakes 
and  put  into  a  baking-pan,  rofe,  during  the  application 
of  heat,  into  light  and  fpungy  bread,  without  the  aid 
of  yeaft  or  leaven.  From  which  it  appears,  that  the 
air  extricated  from  the  water  is  precifely  flmilar  to  that 
produced  by  ordinary  fermentation. 

"  Some  lime-water,  made  of  ftalaclites  brought  from 
the  fubterranean  cave  at  Rhinebec,  became  immediately 
turbid  on  mixture  with  the  fpring-water ;  but  when  the 
water  had  been  lately  drawn,  the  precipitate  was  quickly 
re-difTolved. 

"  Some  of  the  rock  furrounding  the  fpring,  on  be- 
ing put  into  the  fire,  calcined  to  quick-lime,  and  flacked 
very  well. 

"  When  the  atrial  matter  has  evaporated,  the  water 
lofes  its  tranfparency  and  lets  fall  a  calcareous  fediment. 

"  Whence  it  is  true,  that  the  gas  is  asrial  acid,  that 
the  rock  is  lime-ftone,  and  that  by  means  of  the  former, 
the  water  becomes  capable  of  diflblving  and  conveying 
the  latter.'3* 

III.  The  other  form  in  which  carbone  exifls  in  con- 
nection with  the  principle  of  acidity  and  the  matter  of 
heat,  forming  carbonic  acid  gas,  is  in  fubterraneous 
grottos,  caverns,  mines,  &c.  where  it  has  received,  from 
its  deleterious  qualities,  the  name  of  choak-damp,  &c. 

It  is  extricated  in  this  ftate  from  wine,  mead,  ver- 
juice and  bread,  and  from  vegetables  during  combuf- 
tion  and  fermentation,  as  was  long  ago  known  to  Van 

Helmont, 

*  Morfe's  Geog,  vol.  I.  p.  457. 


(     17    ) 

Helmont,  who  afferts,  that  it  is  by  means  of  the  cor- 
ruption of  the  aliment,  and  to  the  evolution  of  this 
gas,  that  we  fhould  afcribe  the  flatus,  &c.  in  the  ali- 
mentary canal.* 

Carbonic  acid  gas  is  evolved  too  during  refpiration, 
as  may  be  eafily  proved  by  pafling  our  breath  through 
lime-water,  which  it  inftantly  turns  turbid. 

Thefe  are  not  the  only  obfervations  of  Van  Helmont 
on  this  gas,  for  he  has  mentioned  it  in  feveral  other 
places,  and  particularly  in  his  treatife  de  Lithiqfl.  cap. 
iv.  No.  7.  and  in  his  'Tumulus  Pejiis. 

The  properties  of  the  carbonic  acid  are  :— 

1 .  When  it  is  in  a  ftate  of  fimple  mixture  or  com- 
bination with  water,  it  is  deftructive  to  the  lives  of  fifli, 
being  unfit  for  their  refpiration,  as  was  proved  not  only 
by  Mitchill  in  his  experiments  on  the  Saratoga  fprings, 
but  alfo  on  another  fpecies  in  the  prefence  of  the  che- 
mical clafs. 

That  it  is  alike  noxious  to  the  refpiration  of  plants, 
when  they  are  expofed  to  too  great  a  quantity  of  it,  is 
fufficiently  evinced  by  Prieftley's  experiments. 

The  medical  properties  of  this  acid  are  remarkably 
evident  from  the  effects  of  the  faline  draughts  of  Ri- 
verius,  from  Seltzer  water,  and  from  the  employment 
of  yeaft  in  the  New-York  hofpital. 

2.  That  in  its  gafeous  ftate  it  is  unfit  for  animal 
refpiration  in  air,  has  been  long  ago  obferved,  as  we 
find  in  hiftory,  which  informs  us  that  the  two  flaves 

C  Tiberius 

•  TtifktXt  <'■'-  Flatibui,  No.  67  and  68-     PerGus,  Sat.  iii.  $9. 


(     18     ) 

Tiberias  Casfar  commanded  to  defcend  into  the  Grotto 
dd  Cano  were  immediately  fuffocated. 

And  it  is  to  this  gas  that  Van  Helmont,*  Morgagni,-f- 
Hales,  J  and  Addifon  §  attribute  the  fatality  of  thofe 
who  .enter  the  above  Grotto,  and  efpecially  Van  Hel- 
mont, who  conceives  it  to  be  entirely  owing  to  this 
vapour  that  danger  is  always  prefent  in  cellars  contain- 
ing fermenting  ale,  cider,  &c.  and  Pliny  fpeaks  alfo  of 
caves  from  which  deadly  exhalations  arife ;  "  and  in 
the  territories  of  the  Hirpines,"  fays  he,  "  there  is  that 
of  Amfanclus,  a  cave  near  to  the  temple  of  Nephites, 
into  which  as  many  as  enter  fuddenly  die."|| 

The  deadly  effecls  of  the  vapours  of  charcoal,  or  the 
carbonous  acid,  when  applied  to  our  refpiratory  organs, 
were  fadly  experienced  a  few  years  ago  in  New- Jerfey, 
and  many  other  cafes  of  the  like  kind  have  been  re- 
lated.^"   ■ 

The  famous  lake  of  Averno  too,  in  which  Virgil 
tells  us  is  the  entrance  of  the  Pandemonian  regions,  is 
faid  to  have  exhaled  fo  great  a  quantity  of  this  elaftic 
fluid,  as  to  have  killed  birds  that  attempted  to  fly 
over  it.** 

CHAPTER 

*  Compl.  atque  Mift.  Element.  Figm.  No.  43. 

-f-  De  Sed.  &  Caus.  Morb.  Epift.  19. 

J  Statics,  260,  261. 

§  Vol.  iv.  p.  139.  See  alfo  curious  experiments  on  the  fame  Grotto,  re- 
Sated  in  3  Keyfler's Travels,  p.  1145  3  Grand  Tour,  (by  Nugent)  p.  404;  En- 
tyclopaed.  Brittan.  art.  Grotto;  Tours  by  Bry done,  Moore,  Src. 

||  C.  Plinii  Nat.  Hift.  torn.  1.  lib.ii.     Cap.  xciii.  De  Miraculis  Terrarum. 

^[  L.  Annaei.  Senecae  ad  Lucilium  Nat.  Quae  ft.  lib.  vi.  28.  In  quo  de  ter- 
ra; motu  agifur.  Mead,  de  Venenis,  tent.  6.  4  Hoffman,  p.  697.  No.  22. 
3  Percival,  Eff.  vi.  &c. 

**  Virg.  /En.  vii.  1.  82.—  JEn,  vi.  1.  237,  &  Notae.   This,  however,  does 


(   *9  ; 

CHAPTER  III. 

(Economical  ufes  of  carbone  and  its  compofitions. 

i.  CHARCOAL  is  ufed  in  the  composition  of 
gun-powder,  and  the  purer  it  is,  the  ftronger  and  better 
will  be  the  powder.  Charcoal,  which  is  generally  pro- 
duced by  the  incineration  of  vegetables,  and  ufed  for 
this  purpofe,  and  which  approaches  nearer!:  to  chemical 
exactitude,  is  faid  to  be  procured  from  the  Corylus  of 
Linne.  It  is  ufed  in  gun-powder  becaufe  of  its  great 
combuftibility,  which  is  derived  from  its  colour  and 
natural  attraction  for  oxigene ;  for  the  carbone  firft 
decompounds  oxigene  air,  which  produces  that  tem- 
perature in  which  the  fulphur  becomes  alfo  capable  of 
the  fame  procefs,  and  both  thefe  more  effectually  by 
the  great  quantity  of  oxigene  the  nitre  affords. 

The  chemical  affinities  of  the  ingredients  of  gun- 
powder may  be  underftood  by  the  following  table : — 


Pot-afh. 
Nitrous  ia 
Gun-powder,       4.     Sulphur.  t  Oxigene. 


ror-ain.  r    . 

Nitrous  Acid,  |  ~zote' 


Thefe  ingredients  in  and  after  explofion  form  other 
compounds,  according  to  their  refpective  chemical 
affinities: — 

Oxigene 

not  appear  to  be  the  cafe  now,  as  Silius  Italicus  (lib.  xii.)  informs  us  tliat  the 
noxious  vapours  which  iffued  from  Lake  Averno  in  the  days  of  Hannibal  were 
entirely  diflipated  by  the  free  acceflion  of  air  fince  the  felling  of  the  woods  thas 
furrounded  it  by  the  order  of  Aggrippa. 


'(      2©      ) 

Oxigene  and  Sulphur  form      Sulphuric  AcuL 

Sulphuric  Acid  and  Pot-afh  Cubic  Nitre. 

Oxigene  and  Carbone  Carbonic  Acid. 

Carbonic  Acid  and  Pot-afh  Mild  Alkali. 

Azote  and  Caloric  Azotic  Gas. 

Pot-afh  and  Sulphur  Hepar  Sulphuris. 

Azote  and  Oxigene  (ift  degree)  Oxyd  of  Azote. 

Oxigene  and  Caloric  Oxigene  Gas. 

Hence  then,  from  thefe  new  combinations  taking 
place,  we  eafily  underftand  that  the  explofive  force  of 
gun-powder  no  longer  remains  a  problem  in  chemiftry, 
as  it  is  demonftrated  to  depend  upon  the  formation 
and  extrication  of  different  gaffes,  and  that  as  the  in- 
gredients of  the  gun-powder  bear  to  each  other  an 
exact,  ratio  of  proportion,  will  its  ftrength  and  explo- 
ilve  capacity  be  increafed. 

The  other  new  combinations  that  are  formed  and 
become  more  fixed,  are  alfo  eafily  comprehended,  for 
we  find  that  in  internments  wherein  this  compofition  is 
exploded  there  remains  a  refiduary  foetid  compound, 
which  appears  to  be  the  fulphure  of  pot-afh,  coloured 
hy  means  of  the  charcoal,  &c. 

Father  Kircher  fays,*  we  ought  to  attribute  the 
difcovery  of  the  above  compofition  to  Barthold 
Schwartz,  or  Barthold  the  Black,  a  monk  of  Goflar,  in 
Germany,  a  man  of  profound  knowledge  in  alche- 
miftry.  This  man  having  made  a  medicinal  mixture  of 
fulphur,  nitre  and  charcoal,  it  happened  that  a  fpark 
fell  into  it,  and  caufed  it  to  explode  with  the  mofl 
dreadful  violence.     This  fo  aftonifhed  the  monk  that 

he 

*  Mundus  Subt«raneus,  p.  487. 


(     H     ) 

he  repeated  the  experiment,  and  more  fully  difcovered 
the  nature  and  properties  of  gun-powder  in  1354. 

The  invention  of  gun-powder  feems  alfo  to  have 
been  attributed  to  the  fame  German  by  Polydore 
Vergil,*  who  thinks  him  too  ignoble  to  have  his 
name  handed  down  to  posterity. 

The  compolition  of  gun-powder  by  fome,  however, 
is  fuppofed  to  be  of  more  ancient  date,  for  Lord 
Bacon  fays  ordonance  had  been  ufed  in  China  2000 
years  ago.-f- 

"  Taught  myfterious  Bacon  to  explore 

"  Metallic  veins,  and  part  the  drofs  from  ore; 
"  With  fylvan  coal  in  whirling  mills  combine 
"  The  cryftall'd  nitre,  and  the  fulphurous  mine; 
"  Through  wiry  nets  the  black  diffufion  ftrain, 
"  And  clofe  an  airy  ocean  in  a  grain. "J 

Charcoal  is  alfo  ufed  in  the  arts,  for  the  purpofe 
of  difoxigenating  bodies,  and  efpecially  by  metal- 
lurgists, who  are  thereby  afflfted  in  the  aflaying  of 
ores,  and  reducing  them  to  their  reguline  or  metallic 

ftate. 

•  Polyd.  Vcrg.  de  Inven.  Rerum,  lib.  ii.  cap.  II. 

•f  Effay  on  the  Viciffitudes  of  Things.  For  a  more  full  account  of  the 
«r>mpofition  of  gun-powder,  fee  Watfon's  Chem.  Eff.  vol.  i.  p.  327. 

J  Gun-powder  is  plainly  defcribed  in  the  works  of  Roger  Bacon  before  the 
year  1267.  He  defcribes  it  in  a  curious  manner,  mentioning  the  fulphur  and 
nitre,  but  conceals  the  charcoal  in  an  anagram.  The  words  are,  ft-  1  tamen, 
filis  pctrx  LtJRt  mop*  can  UBRt  et  fulphuris;  et  lie  facies  toniirum,  et 
corrufcationem,  fi  fcias,  artificium.  The  words  lure  mope  can  ubte  ate 
an  anagram  of  carbonum  pulvcre.  Biograph.  Brit.  vol.  i.  Bacon  de  Secretin 
Operibui,  cap.  11.  He  adds,  that  he  thinks  by  an  artifice  of  this  kind 
Gideon  defeated  the  Midianites  with  only  three  hundred  men.  Judges,  cap.  7. 
Chamb.  Diet.  art.  Gun-powder.  As  Bacoa  does  not  claim  this  as  hll  own 
intention,  it  ii  thought  by  many  to  have  been  of  much  more  ancient  difcOYgry. 
Dirwin  Can",  i.  I.237.     i  Watfon's  Chcm.  E/T.  p.  335. 


(    4    ) 

ftate.  It  is  this  Simple  fubftance  too,  on  its  exilition 
in  the  gafeous  form  from  the  alkali,  that  makes  the  fud- 
den  expIoSion  in  Pulvis  fulminans,  when  the  fulphur 
and  alkali  combine,  and  form  a  hepar  or  fulphure 
which  is  coloured  by  the  charcoal. 

2.  In  a  State  of  combination  with  the  carbonates  of 
lime,  fuch  as  chalks,  marbles,  lime-Stones,  marks,  tefta- 
ceous  Shells,  &c.  it  is  ufed  for  agricultural  purpofes,* 
and  appears  to  be  a  natural  and  considerable  Stimulant 
on  the  abforbent  fyflem  of  vegetables,  enabling  them  to 
take  in  a  greater  quantity  of  nourishment  and  to  become 
more  vigorous  5  and  our  profefTor  of  agriculture  f  de- 
livers it  as  his  opinion,  that  the  carbonates  of  lime  act 
pretty  much  like  the  gypfums,  not  fo  much  by  yielding 
nourifhment  themfelves,  as  by  operating  on  the  excit- 
ability of  plants,  giving  them  greater  appetency  for 
food,  Strengthening  their  digeSlive  powers,  and  thereby 
enabling  them  to  grow  with  increafed  energy  and  luxu- 
riance. And  it  feems  to  be  that  lime  which,  in  its  cauSlic 
ftate,  is  fcattered  over  fallow  land  by  farmers,  becoming 
carbonated  or  neutralized  by  this  acid,  that  affords  that 
wholefome  Stimulus  to  the  future  crop  \  for,  were  this 
not  the  cafe,  the  lime  would  foon  deStroy  them,  as  it  is 
well  known  to  do  both  vegetable  and  animal  fubSlances 
In  its  Slate  of  purity  or  cauSlicity  j  though  even  in  this 
ftate  it  may  be  advantageouSly  employed  in  fome  cafes 
to  quicken  the  decay  or  decomposition  of  dead  vege- 
table matter,  as  in  dung-heaps,  &c 

The 

*  Fordyce's  Elem,  Agric.  Andeffon.  Agric.  Kaimes'  Gent.  Farm.  &c.  &cv 
t  Mitchill. 


C    23    ) 

The  carbonic  acid  not  only  appears  to  be  a  confider- 
able  ftimulant  to  vegetables,  but  they  would  alfo  feem 
to  decompound  it,  for  the  purpofe  of  receiving  its  bafe 
into  their  conftitutions,  and  this  feems  countenanced 
from  what  has  been  related  concerning  the  experiments 
of  Myer.* 

Although  it  has  long  been  difputed  by  chemiftsj 
phyfiologifts  and  agriculturalifts,  whether  or  not  char- 
coal exifted,  and  was  formed  naturally  by  the  vegeta- 
ble ceconomy ;  yet,  from  thefe  late  obfervations  it  is 
found  true  beyond  doubt,  that  it  is  a  fubftance  pro- 
cured ab  extra,  and  when  taken  in  becomes  an  ingre- 
dient in  the  ligneous  part  of  the  vegetable  :-f-  and  by 
thefe  means  may  vegetables  purify  the  atmofphere,  not 
only  by  their  extrication  of  vital  air,  but  alfo  by  de- 
compofing  the  carbonic  acid  or  its  gas:  and  hence  we 
perceive  that  this  acid  is  decompofed  naturally  as  well 
as  artificially,  when  in  the  former  it  goes  to  combine 
with  the  hydrogene  of  the  vegetable,  and  thus  forms 
their  oils  and  reiins,  &c.  it  being  to  be  confidered,  that 
the  moft  valuable  manures  contain  very  large  propor- 
tions of  a  carbonaceous  fubftance,  as  in  fwamp  ma- 
nure, cow-yard  manure,  &c.  and  that  the  exhauftion 

of 

•  Muhlenberg's  Letter  to  Mitchill  on  the  cultivation  of  the  avena 
Xlatior — gypsum  and  stone  coal  as  a  manure,  &c.  TranfatS.  Agric* 
Soc.  of  New- York,  for  1794,  part  ii.  p.  215.  See  an  experiment  to  the  fame 
effect  made  by  Scnebier,  related  in  3  Chaptal's  Chem.  p.  32,  and  by  Haflenfratz, 
Annalc:  de    Chimie.  Month.  Rev.  new  fcries,  vol.  xi.  p.  540. 

•f  This  appears  to  be  the  cafe  efpecially  with  the  sphagnum  palustrk 
of  Linnc,  which  is  of  fo  entirely  a  carbonaceous  ftrucrure  as  to  continue  for 
a  great  length  of  time  undecompofed,  when  covered  with  flrata  of  earthy  *i 
may  bcfcco  u-^r  New-Town,  on  Lor.g-Illand,  &c. 


(      24     ) 

of  the  fertility  of  foil  in  old  cleared  land  is  owing  in 
a  great  degree  to  the  confumption  by  vegetable  abforp- 
tion  of  that  carbonaceous  ftratum  of  dead  leaves,  de- 
cayed and  rotten  trees,  &c.  which,  on  the  firft  fettle- 
ment  of  the  country  covered  the  furface  of  it.  And 
the  fertility  of  all  our  lands  appears  to  be  in  a  confider- 
able  degree  owing  to  the  leading  ingredient — carbone. 

g.  In  a  ftate  of  mixture  with  water ;  and,  4thly,  in 
a  ftate  of  gas  it  may  be  ufed  ceconomically  in  the  mak- 
ing of  bread,  as  Mitchill  not  only  proved  in  the  ex- 
periments at  Saratoga,  but  alfo  in  a  ftate  of  gas,  as 
appears  by  the  following  extract : — "  Why  are  barm, 
yeaft  and  leaven,  and  other  like  fubftances,  neceflary  to 
raife  fermentation  in  bread  ?  It  is  not  neceffary  that 
bread  undergo  fermentation  in  order  to  be  good  *,  but 
it  is  fimply  requifite  that  a  quantity  of  fixed  air  mould 
be  extricated  to  raife  and  puff  it  up.  This  divides 
and  parts  afunder  the  dough,  and  renders  it  porous  and 
foft,  prevents  excerlive  tough nefs  and  hardnefs,  and 
makes  the  bread  eafy  to  be  broken,  cut  and  eaten: 
further,  fixed  air,  although  a  poifon  when  applied  to 
the  organs  of  fmeli  and  refpiration,  is  an  agreeable 
ftimulus  when  taken  into  the  ftomach,  and  may  ope- 
rate, when  an  ingredient  in  bread,  juft  as  it  does  in 
porter  and  other  malt  liquors.  What  good  does  pot- 
am  do  in  cakes  ?  Pot-am  contains  a  great  portion  of 
fixed  air,  which  is  fet  at  liberty  by  the  heat  neceflary 
to  bake  the  cake  •,  and  therefore  pot-afh  fuperfedes  the 
ufe  of  fermenting  mixtures.  How  is  the  water  of  Sa- 
ratoga fpring  ufeful  ?  In  the  fame  manner.   The  water 

is 


(     25     ) 

is  decompofed  by  the  heat,  lets  go  the  fixed  air,  which, 
insinuates  itfelf  into  the  bread,  and  caufes  it  to  be  light 
and  fpungy.  For  what  reaibn  are  holes  pricked  into 
loaves  of  bread  ?  The  heat  of  the  oven  not  only  fets 
free  a  large  quantity  of  fixed  air,  but  alio  greatly  rari- 
fies  it :  if,  therefore,  there  be  no  outlet  given  to  it,  the 
loaf  would  be  burfted  in  an  unfightly  manner,  or  an  ex- 
tenfive  blifter  would  be  formed  beneath  the  upper  cruft, 
to  the  damage  of  the  bread."* 

Carbonic  acid  may  not  only  be  oeconomically  applied 
in  the  making  of  bread,  but  alfo  from  late  obferva- 
tions  in  the  making  of  vinegar,  as  appears  from  the 
experiments  of  Chaptal,  who,  by  means  of  water  be- 
ing impregnated  with  near  about  its  own  bulk  of  this 
acid,  and  expofed  in  a  cellar  where  it  had  free  venti- 
lation, found  all  that  was  contained  in  the  vefTels 
in  a  fhort  time  converted  into  acetous  acid;  and 
as  there  appears  to  be  nothing  wanting  but  a  prefence 
of  hydrogene  gas,  and  that  particular  temperature  in 
which  this  change  may  be  wrought,  it  is  not  improbable 
that  in  time  this  will  be  found  a  very  cheap,  eafy  and 
expeditious  way  of  fupplying  ourfelves  with  this  article. 

It  has  been  fuggefted  by  Percival  as  deferving  trial 
by  florifts  and  horticulturalifts,  when  combined  with 
water  ;-f-  and  from  what  has  been  faid  on  the  agricultural 
ufe  of  lime,  &c.  modified  by  this  acid,  it  would  feem 
very  likely  to  produce  good  effects,  as  the  acid  may  be 
decompounded  in  his  experiments  as  well  as  in  thofe 
above  related. 

D  CHAPTER 

•  See  "  Sketch  of  the  Philofophy  tt"  Houfc-kceping,"  &c.   American  Mu- 
fcum  for  Oilobsr,  1790,  p.  173.  -J    2  Med.  III'.   i>.  147. 


C   26    y 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  fubjeff  of  carbone  conjidered  medically. 

IF  it  be  true  that  the  fubftances  compofing  the  fan- 
guineous,  nervous  and  mufcular  parts  of  our  conftitu- 
tions  mall  at  different  times  exift  in  greater  or  lefs  pro- 
portion, or  poflefs  greater  or  lefs  attraction  for  each 
other  than  is  confident  with  the  health  and  well-being 
of  our  bodies;  it  follows,  that  when  there  mall  be  an 
abfence  or  furplufage  of  one  or  more  of  the  ingredients 
forming  the  compound,  the  fubftance  or  fubftances  fo 
abfent,  or  if  they  are  prefent  and  exift  in  a  too  great  or 
fmall  quantity,  that  difeafe  muft  be  induced  correfpond- 
1  ing  to  the  prefent  ingredients  and  their  tendency  to  form 
new  combinations :  and  hence  it  appears,  that  the  ma- 
terials forming  our  bodies  muft  exift  in  a  certain  ratio 
of  proportion  with  regard  to  each  other,  in  order  to 
conftitute  health;  every  departure  from  which  ratio 
will  produce  predifpofition  if  not  actual  difeafe. 

That  difeafe  fometimes  arifes  from  a  difproportion 
of  the  ingredients  or  materials  forming  the  blood  and 
the  mufcular  compages  of  our  flefh,  will  be  fufrkiently 
apparent  by  attending  to  the  phsenomena  that  are 
chiefly  confpicuous  in  the  fymptoms  of  the  two  difeafes 
of  phthiiis  and  fcorbutus,  or  confumption  and  fcurvy : 
the  former  to  be  considered  as  depending  upon  or  occa- 
sioned "by  an  excefs,  and  the  latter  by  a  deficiency  of  the 
oxigenous  principle";  accompanied  in  the  former  with 
a  diminution^  and  in  the  latter  with  an  increafe  of  the 

carbonaceous 


C    27    ) 

tarbonaceous  material. — And  firft  then  of ' Phibijis  pill- 
monalis. 

PHTHISIS. 

FOR  the  better  explanation  of  the  fymptbms  of  this 
difeafe,  we  mall  confider  it  under  the  three  following 
heads,  which  are  perhaps  as  juft  characteristics  as  any 
of  the  complaint. 

I.  The  remarkable  lofs  of  fat,  and  often  of  mufcukr 

fubftance  apparent  in  it. 

II.  That  happinefs,  cheerfulnefs    and   ferenity   of 

mind  which  attend  it :  and, 
III:  The  fever  for  which  it  is  remarkable. 
I.  The  remarkable  lofs  of  fat  and  often  of  mufcular 
fubftance  that  is  manifested  in  confumption,  even  to  the 
'extreme  leannefs  fo  confpicuous  in  the  fades  hippocra- 
iica,  may  probably  be  explained  on  the  fuppofition  of 
an  excefs  of  the  acidifying  principle  in  the  following 
manner : — The  oxigene  may  unite  with  the  carbone  of 
our  flem,  during  the  temperature  of  the  fyftem  occa- 
sioned by  means  of  the  fever,  which  increafed  degree  of 
heat  caufes  a  greater  attraction  of  the  carbone  for  the 
oxigene  than  before  exifted,  and  by  uniting  with  it  and 
caloric,  flies  off  in  the  form  of  carbonic  acid  gas,  and 
takes  away  the  bafis  of  the  mufcles  and  fat:  the  bafis 
of  the  flem,  being  thus  diflipated,  leaves  the  other  in- 
gredients in  greater  attractive  force  •  for  each  other  than 

they 

*   "  Carbonic  matter  long  fince  prefente'd  itfeff  to  my  mind  as  likely 
to  be  fervkeable  in  difeafes,  where  we  fhould  defire  to  deprive  the  fyftem  of"  ox- 
igene.    Its  great  attraction  for  oxigene,  in  high  temperatures,  has  long  been 
fcnown;   and  (he  experiments  of  Mr.  Lowirz,  ami  ft'll  mote  the  very  forpri 
-j9?i  of  Dr.  Kels,  (Chill'i  Annai.£N,  ft.  3.  17'j?)  and  of,  Dn  liuckholz, 


I      28      J, 

they  poffeffed  before ;  fo  that  they  alfo  may  unite  and 
form  new  combinations,  as  part  of  the  hydrogene  may 
combine  with  the  carbonic  acid  during  its  formation  and 
evolution  from  the  furface  of  the  body,  and  form  that 
colliquative  or  clammy  fweat  which  is  fo  constant  a  de- 
bilitant  in  confumption.  Part  of  the  hydrogene  too, 
may  combine  with  the  oxigene,  and  produce  the  drop- 
fkal  fwellings  fometimes  obfervable  in  that  complaint ; 
and  mod  other  atrophial  difeafes,  whether  they  arife  from 
defect  of  nourishment  or  from  mefenteric  obstructions, 
may,  like  the  confumption,  be  owing  to  a  deficiency  of 
the  radical  of  the  carbonic  acid ;  and  it  would  feem  to  be 
by  this  combination  of  oxigene,  carbone  and  caloric 
flying  off  in  the  form  of  gas,  that  occafions  emacia- 
tion, not  only  in  this  complaint,  but  in  all  fevers  what- 
foever. 

II.  The  ferene  and  cheerful  difpofition  which  pa- 
tients in  confumption  almofl  always  ponefs,  may  alfo 
be  owing  to  an  excefs  of  the  fame  principle;  and  it 
may  not  be  unlikely,  that  it  acts  immediately  on  the 
vital  folid,  or  living  moving  -powers,  which  appear  to  he 
fo  delicately  organized,  and  to  poffefs  that  peculiar  excit- 
ability, capacity,  or  fufceptibility  of  impreffion,  that  when 
oxigen,  its  natural  Stimulant  or  excitant,  fhall  be  ap- 
plied, an  effect  or  an  excitement  is  produced;  which 
quality,  thence  arifing  from  effects  fo  produced,  is  what 

is 

(Grin's  Journ.  per  Physik.  B.  v.  p.  3.)  mew  that  at  a  temperature  con- 
iiderably  below  thatof  warm-blooded  animals,  carbonic  matter  is  by  no  means 
fo  inert  a  fubftance  as  it  has  hitherto  been  reputed.  Dr.  Moench  (V.  d.  Arz- 
nev-mittein,  p.  221.)  affures  us,  that  he  has  given  it  largely  with  fuc- 
cefs."  Beddoes'  Letter  to  Darwin,  p.  63.  , 


(     29     ) 

is  called  Life ;  and  in  proportion  as  fuch  application 
mall  be  made  and  continued,  will  be  the  efFedt  and 
continuance  of  this  pleafant  quality  in  the  fyftem,  as  is 
inftanced  in  all  the  intermediate  degrees  of  the  ftate  of 
mind  in  fcurvy  and  confumption. 

But  this  quality,  aptitude  or  relation  which  the  vital 
folid  pofTefTes  of  being  operated  upon  by  its  natural  fti- 
mulant,  oxigene,  may  at  length  be  worn  out  of  its  ex- 
citability, as  is  proved  by  animals  being  expofed  to  an 
atmofphere  of  pure  vital  air,  who  fhortly  after  died  •, 
not  from  the  irrefpirability  of  the  air,  for  animals  could 
live  in  it  afterwards,  but  from  this  animal  capacity  be- 
ing deftroyed  by  means  of  the  indirect  debility  the  gas 
produced  on  their  fyftems  ;  and  hence  the  above  quali- 
ty muft  ceafe,  and  ceffation  of  life,  or  death  as  it  is  cal- 
led, muft  enfue.  Therefore  excitement,  which  is  an 
effebi  produced  by  the  above  exciting  power,  acting 
upon  the  excitability  of  the  vital  medullary  fyftem  and 
irritable  fibre,  and  which  is  commonly  called  life,  or 
the  vital  principle,  would  not  feem  to  be.  a  d/Jiincl  fub- 
fiance  added  to  the  body,  but  merely  the  modification 
or  organization  of  the  component  atoms  in  a  fpecific 
manner,  and  with  due  proportions  of  each  of  the  ele- 
ments-, which  organization  and  proportion  are  condi- 
tions neceflary  to  life,  and  the  deftruclion  of  which  in 
all  cafes  produces  or  accompanies  difeafe  or  death : — 
This  then,  this  is  the  magnum  arcanum  nature  in  this 
cafe  of  animated  exiftence-,  that  animals,  when  this 
quality  mail  ceafe  to  cxift,  die — to  be  fucceeded  by  other 
animals;  and  that  the  fame  materials  that  formed  the  one 

animal. 


(     30    J 

animal,  may,  after  its  death,  go  to  the  formation  of  ano- 
ther. 

That  the  cheerful  difpofition  of  mind  in  confumptive 
patients  is  occafioned  by  a  fuper-oxigenated  fyftem, 
would  feem  as  fully  rational  and  conclufive  as  that  of 
the  great  Haller,  who  would  feign  believe  that  this 
ftate  of  exhiliration,  wherein  the  bodily  powers  were 
wafting  away  by  difeafe,  manifefted  a  "  certain  fome- 
what"  which  argued  an  immortality  of  the  foul.* — - 
However,  were  we  to  form  a  juft  and  accurate  conclu- 
sion from  the  facts  and  obfervations  above  related,  we 
could  not  be  led  to  an  explanation  of  the  caufe  of  that 
"  certain  fomewhat"  which  occasions  hilarity  in  thefe 
patient?,  as  Haller  has  done;  but,  we  muft  confider 
■life  as  an  effect  -produced  by  the  action  of  ftimuli,  and  -par- 
ticularly of  the  ovigenous  principle,  upon  the  excitability 
of  the  mufcular  and  nervous  fyftem  •,  and  hence,  that  it  is 
not  a  principle,  but  a  condition — not  a  fubftance,  but  a 
quality  of  a  fubftance. 

That  it  is  the  oxigenation  of  the  fyftem  which  occa- 
sions the  above  quality  or  difpofition  of  mind,  and  that 
this  will  be  effected  in  proportion  as  the  fyftem  mall  be 
fo  oxigenated,  will  not  only  appear  from  the  cheerful- 
siefs  it  infpires  on  breathing  it,  butibe  made  further 
apparent  hereafter,  when  the  fymptoms  of  a  difeafe 
fuppofed  to  be  induced  from  difoxigenation,  or  a  defi- 
ciency of  the  fame  principle,  fhall  be  taken  into  confe- 
deration. 

It 

*  rii'u  Haller.  Element.  Pbyfiolog,  lib.  xxx.   %%?>•  Signa  Mortise 


(     3i     ) 

It  may  not,  however,  be  deemed  improper  to  ad- 
duce here  another   argument  in  fupport  of  what  has 
already  been  faid  concerning  the  exhilaration  of  mind 
in  confumption,  which  appears  to  be  dependant  on 
the  fame  caufe,  and  exifting  in  proportion  to  the  degree 
it  fhall  be  applied ;  it  is  this,  that  in  general  females  are 
remarked  to  be  more  fubjecl:  to  this  complaint  than 
males;  fo  alio  it  is  well  known  they  pofTefs  greater  ir- 
ritability,   that    their    imagination    and   vividity    of 
thought   far  exceed  thofe  of  males  j    all   of  which 
fymptoms  are  clearly  the  effects  of  their  fyftems  being 
comparatively  oxigenated  in  a  greater  degree  than  the 
males;  and  this  is  remarkably  illuftrated  by  an  obfer- 
vation  made  by  Pliny,  who  fays,    "  The  blood  of 
males  is  commonly  blacker  than  that  of  females-,"* 
which  change  of  colour  Prieftley  has  long  ago  proved 
to  be  owing  to  the  influence  of  oxigenous  air. 

Since  then  it  is  the  principle  of  acidity  that  enters 
and  becomes  part  of  the  folid  fubftance  of  our  bodies, 
and  occasions  that  ftimulation  on  the  excitability  of  our 
nervous  fyftems,  &c.  which  produces  the  phenomena 
of  a  living  flare,  we  may  with  great  facility  explain 
many  of  its  functions,  which  feemed  formerly  to  have 
eluded  the  obfervations  and  refearches  of  the  moft  dili- 
gent phyfiologifts :  we  have  already  explained  fome  of 
the  moft  difficult,  that  at  firft  fight  feemed  to  have  been 
infcrutable-,  and  the  other  powers  that  follow,  dif- 
tinguifhing  dead  from  living  matter,  are  the  internal 
ftimuli  themfclvcs ;   "  the  functions  of  the  fyftem  itfclf 

prod  i! 

■  "  .-.  HHt,   V.m.  I.  lib.  i  j.   op.  ,".. 


C    32     ) 

producing  the  fame  effect  are  mufcular  contraction,  the 
exercife  of  {mk,  the  energy  of  the  brain  in  thinking, 
and  in  paffion  and  emotion."  Thefe,  together  with 
the  external  ftimulant  power  of  oxigene  after  its  appli- 
cation, produce  the  fame  effect,  and  life,  or  the  quality 
of  animation,  is  therefore  found  to  be  excited  by  their 
mutual  co-operance  j  and  hence  "  is  a  forced  fiate  of 
exiflence." 

This  confequent  performance  of  functions,  when  the 
ftimulus  of  oxigene  mall  be  applied  to  a  fyftem,  poflef- 
fing  a  capacity  of  being  roufed  to  life,  will  alfo  probably 
explain,  among  other  of  its  functions,  the  circulation 
of  the  blood,  without  accounting  for  it  on  the  fole  ac- 
tion of  the  heart,  or  afcribing  it  chiefly  to  the  effect  of 
mufcular  fibres,  by  fome  fuppofed  to  exift  in  the  vafcular 
fyftem.:  on  the  contrary,  it  would  appear  to  be  almoft 
entirely  explicable  on  the  above  fuppofition :  and  in- 
deed, though  the  heart  or  mufcular  fibres  fhould  be 
admitted  to  have  a  tendency  to  aid  the  circulation  of 
the  fanguineous  fluid,  yet  this  appears  to  be  only  in 
proportion  as  the  blood  mall  be  oxigenated,  and  thus 
operate  on  their  excitability :  and  that  they  have  no 
fuch  great  agency  is  further  demonftrated  by  the  circu- 
lation exifting  in  a  human  creature  born  without  heart 
or  lungs,  wherein  the  circulation  between  the  fcetus  and 
the  mother  continued  by  means  of  the  umbilical  cord 
and  placenta,  fo  as  to  ftimulate  the  arteries  to  action, 
until,  after  birth,  when  the  cefTation  of  the  oxigenating 

procefs,* 

*  "  The  foetus  has  Its  blood  oxigenated  by  the  blood  of  the  mother 

through  the  placenta.     During  pregnancy,  there  feems   to  be  no  provifion  for 
the  reception  of  an  unufual  quantity  of  oxigene.     On  the  contrary,  in  confer 


(     33     ) 

procefs,  on  account  of  the  want  of  refpiratory  organs, 
was  directly  followed  by  death.* 

It  is  alfo  probable,  that  oxigene  is  the  caufe  of  irri- 
tability, from  this  quality  being  greater!  in  parts  where 
moft  blood  is  fent;  and  where  this  is  abftracted,  the 
vital  principle,  as  Hunter  calls  it,  muft  alfo  ceafe,  as  lie 
proved  by  his  experiments  in  the  bleeding  of  animals : 
and,  on  the  contrary,  where  there  fhall  be  lefs  fent,  or 
where  it  mail  lofe  the  property  of  being  arterial,  thofe 
parts  will  be  lefs  fenfible,  as  is  evidently  perceived  in 
the  liver,  &c. 

Animals  too,  poflefling  a  great  quantity  of  oxigenej 
are  alfo  moft  irritable,  as  is  perceived  in  the  tortoife, 
which  will  exceedingly  well  apply  to  prove  that  the 
circulation  of  the  blood  is  carried  on  by  the  means 
above  ftated :  for  Mitchill  relates  an  experiment  made 
by  himfelf,  wherein,  after  withdrawing  the  blood  and 
injecting  water  in  its  place,  he  found  that  the  heart 

E  would 

quence  of  the  impeded  action  of  the  diaphragm,  lefs  and  lefs  fliould  be  conti-' 
nually  taken  in  by  the  iungs.  If,  therefore,  a  fumswhat  diminifhcd  proportion 
of  oxigene  be  the  effect  of  pregnancy,  may  not  this  be  the  way  in  which  itar- 
refts  the  progrefs  of  phthifis?  and  if  fo,  is  there  not  an  excefs  of  oxigene  in 
the  fyftem  of  confumptive  perfons?  and  may  we  not,  by  purfuing  this  idea, 
difcover  a  cure  for  this  fatal  diforder?"  Beddoes' Obferv.  on  Calculus,  &c. 
p.  114,  116. 

He  goes  on  further  to  fay,  that  (l  pregnant  women  agree  with  fcorbutic  pa- 
tients in  that  ftrong  inftindtive  appetite  for  vegetables  ;  and  it  appears  as  If  this 
diet  wa',  the  moft  fuitable  to  them.'* 

"  Pregnant  ...men,"  faya  J?r.  Denman,  "h:\vegenerally  a  diflike  to  animal 

food  of  every  kind,  and  under  every  fcrm — on  the  contrary,  they  prefer  vege- 

,  fruit,  and  every  thing  cooling,  which  they  eat  and  drink  with  avidity, 

•nd  in  which  they  indulge  without  prejudice."     Introduce,  to  Miciw,  o.2/)y. 

See  Review  of  Beddoea'  Obfcrvationa,  tec.  8  Duncan's  Med.  Com.  p.  79. 

*   ttt  1  I'  •  :  a  Human  M*le  Monftcr,  by  Dr.  M^nro,  iii.  Tranf. 

Roy.  Sue.  Ldin.  p.  215. 


(     34     ) 

would  contract  and  propel  the  water  for  fome  time, 
until,  for  want  of  a  frefh.  fupply  of  oxigene,  it  ftopt. 
This  irritability  is  well  known  in  the  eel,  turtle,  &c. 
and  many  of  the  clafs  of  amphibia  of  Linne. 

Oxigene,  however,  may  not  only  be  the  caufe  of  irri- 
tability in  the  instances  already  mentioned,  but  may  alfo 
produce  this  quality  in  vegetables,  as  in  the  mimofe, 
&c.  and  in  all  organized  matter  whatfoever  poffeffing 
a  capacity  of  being  operated  upon  by  it. 

III.  The  fever  which  attends  confumption  would 
alfo  feem  to  be  confirmative  of  the  above  doctrine,  and 
will  perhaps  be  of  extenfive  application  to  the  expla- 
nation of  fever  in  general,  efpecially  that  of  the  fyno- 
cha,  in  which  a  phlogiftic,  or  what  perhaps  would  be  a 
more  accurate  expreffion,  an  oxigenated  diathefis  of 
the  blood,  exifts  to  fo  great  a  degree  that  phlebotomy 
is  often  employed  to  decreafe  the  action  of  the  heart 
and  arteries. 

That  fever  is  occasioned  by  an  excefs  of  this  principle 
has  been  fully  proved  by  the  expofure  of  animals  to  ah 
atmofphere  of  oxigene  air,  when  they  have  fhewn  all 
the  diagnoftics  of  fever  and  inflammation.  This  then 
being  the  fact,  we  can  eafily  underftand  why  phthifis  is 
attended  with  fever,  fince  it  is  evident,  that  fuper- 
■oxigenation  is  the  caufe  of  the  complaint ;  for  the  oxi- 
gene, on  account  of  itsgreat  attraction  for  caloric,  al- 
ways carries  a  great  quantity  of  it  in  a  combined  ftate  •, 
and  this  oxigene  itfelf  may  perhaps  be  decompofed  by 
means  of  the  vital  folid,  and  thus  not  only  produce  ir- 
ritability, but  alfo  occaiion  a  greater  evolution  of  its 

heat 


(     35     ) 

heat  from  a  ftate  of  combination  to  that  of  a  liberated 
form  i  thus  conftituting  febrile  heat,  which  produces 
that  degree  of  temperature  iiv  the  fyftem,  by  means  of 
which  the  oxigene,  &c.  will  the  more  ftrongly  be  at- 
tracted by  the  materials  compofing  the  adipofe  and 
mufcular  parts  of  our  bodies,  and  thus,  by  forming 
new  combinations,  fly  off  in  the  form  of  gas,  and  pro- 
duce, in  part  by  thefe  effects,  the  diminution  of  bulk 
and  ftrength  that  is  obferved  in  fevers,  efpecially  thofe 
that  are  terminated  by  colliquative  fweats ;  and  it  is 
this  thermometric  heat  pafling  again  to  a  latent  ftate  in 
the  perfpiratory  matter  on  the  furface  of  the  body  that 
in  fome  cafes  occasions  the  fenfation  of  chillinefs  and 
coldnefs  of  which  patients  complain.* 

Inflammatory 

*  Since  writing  the  above,  Beddoes'  letter  to  Darwin,  on  the  fubjecl  of  "  a 
new  method  of  preventing  pulmonary  confumption,"  has  come  to  hand,  from 
which  the  following  extract  is  felected,  that  the  reader  may  draw  fuch  infe- 
rences as  may  be  fuggefted  from  a  comparifbn  of  what  has  been  delivered  with 
the  experiments  of  that  celebrated  phyfician  : 

"  After  fecuring  a  full  fupply  of  oxigene  air,  the  fird  thing  I  undertook  was 
to  attempt  to  throw  fome  light  upon  the  nature  of  confumption  by  an  experi- 
ment upon  mvf-.lf.  Not  having  any  thing  of  the  phthifical  conformation  or 
the  flighted  hereditary  claim  to  the  difeafe,  1  thought  I  might  venture  very  far 
in  oxigenating  myfelf  wichout  any  great  rifquc  ;  and  it  was  impoilible  for  me 
to  obferve  the  erTecls  fo  minutely  in  another  perfon.  1  accordingly  refpired  air 
of  a  much  higher  than  the  ordinary  ftandard,  and  commonly  fuch  as  contained 
almoft  equal  parts  of  oxigene  and  azotic  air,  for  near  (avert  weeks,  with  little 
interruption.  I  breathed  it  upon  the  whole  fometimes  for  twenty  minutec, 
f  jnvimci  for  half  an  hour,  and  fometimes  for  an  hour  in  theday  ;  but  I  never 
continued  breathing  for  above  four  or  five  minutes  at  any  one  time.  I  felt,  at 
the  time  of  infpiration,  that  agreeable  glow  and  li^htncfs  of  the  ch<-(r,  which 
hai  been  defcribe-J  by  Dr.  IVieflley  and  others.  In  a  very  fhort  time  I  was  fen- 
fible  of  a  much  greater  flow  of  fpirita  than  formerly,  and  was  much  more  dif- 
■'>  mufcu'.jr  ex»rnon.  Ry  degrees,  my  complexion,  from  .in  uniform 
brown,  becam't  fairer  and  f omewhat  florid.  J  perceived  a  carnation  tint  at  tlv- 
end*  «f  the  fingrri,  and  on  all  the  c  ivcred  parts  of  the  body  the  flcin  acquired 


(     36    ) 

Inflammatory  fevers  prevailing  moft  generally  in 
northern  and  lefs  in  fouthern  climates,  may  alfo  poflibly 
be  owing  to  the  fyftem  having  greater  opportunity  of 
becoming  furcharged  with  oxigene  and  caloric  in  the 
former  than  in  the  latter,  and  if  fo,  confumptive  pa- 
tients will  grow  better  in  a  warm  than  in  an  oppofite 

ftate 


much  more  of  a  flefli  colour  than  it  had  before.     I  was  rather  fat,  but  during 
this  procefs  I  fell  away  rapidly,  my  waiftcoats  becoming  very  much  too  large  for 
me;   I  was  not  fenfible,  however,  of  my  mufcular  emaciation,  but  rather  the 
contrary.     My  appetite  wasgood  ;  and  I  eat  one-third  or  one-fourth  more  than 
before  without  feeling  my  ftomach  loaded.     In  no  long  time  I  obferved  in  my- 
felf  a  remarkable  power  of  fuftaining  cold.     Except  one  or  two  evenings  when 
I  was  feverifh,  I  never  once  experienced  the  fenfation  of  chillinefs,  though  cold 
eafterly  winds  prevailed  during  great  part  of  the  time  I  was  infpiring  oxigene  air. 
I  not  only  reduced  my  bed-clothes  to  a  fingle  blanket  and  cover-lid,  but  flept 
without  inconvenience  in  a  large  bed-chamber,  looking  to  the  N.  E.  with  the 
window  open  all  night,  and  with  the  door  and  windows  of  an  adjacent  fitting 
room  alfo  open.     About  the  expiration  of  the  above-mentioned  time,  I  per- 
ceived fome  fufpicious  fymptoms.     It  was  uncomfortable  to  me  to  fit  in  a  room 
at  all  clofe.     I  frequently  felt  a  fenfe  of  heat  and  uneafinefs  in  my  cheft;  and 
rny  Ikin  was  often  dry  and  hot,  with  burning  in  my  palms  and  foles;  my  pulfe, 
which  had  hitherto  feldom  exceeded  eighty,  was  above  ninety  in  the  evening. 
At  this  time  I  took  a  journey  of  about  170  miles,  the  greater  part  in  a  mail 
coach  in  the  night,  the  reft  onhorfeback.     The  roads  were  uncommonly  dufty, 
and  feveral  circumftances  concurred  to  harrafs  and  fatigue  me.     On  the  way  I 
met  with  a  medical  friend,  who  was  much  ftruck  with  the  flufhed  appearance  of 
my  countenance;  and  upon  feeling  my  ikin  and  pulfe,  which  varied  from  an 
hundred  and  four  to  an  hundred  and  twenty,  imagined  that  I  was  become  hectic. 
I  had  now,  though  but  feldom,  a  ihort,  dry  cough  ;  but  the  fenfe  of  irritation 
to  cough  required  an  almoft  conftant  effort  to  fupprefs  it:   this  fenfe  of  irrita- 
tion v/as,  as  you  will  fuppofe,  attended  by  dyfpncea.     I  had  alfo  frequent  bleed- 
ings at  the  nofe,  an  event  almoft  unprecedented  with  me;   the  blood  was  of  an 
unufually  bright  colour;  which  was  alfo  feen  in  blood  forced  from  the  gums. 
"Whenever  I  pierced  the  (kin  in  {having,  the  blood  flowed  in  greater  abundance 
than  ufual,  and  was  ftaunched  with  difficulty." 

In  confirmation  of  what  is  related  in  the  above  cafe,  and  of  the  injurious 
effe&s  of  vital  air  in  confumption,  may  be  added  Fourcroy's  relation  of  the 
cafes  of  twenty  patients  in  this  complaint,  whom  he  caufed  to  refpire  oxigene 
gas.     Beddoes2  Obf.  p.  116  5  extracted  from  Annales  dc  Chimie,  iv.  85. 


(     37     ) 

ftate  of  the  atmofphere,  which  is  found  to  be  the  fact. 
Adolefcents  too,  who  poiTefs  a  great  ftock  of  accumu- 
lated excitability,  will,  on  their  fyftems  becoming  highly 
oxi^enated,  be  more  lively  and  fprightly  than  elderly 
perfons,  who,  on  the  contrary,  from  a  deficiency  of  ex- 
citability, are  more  apt  to  be  melancholic.  So  alfo  will 
this  oxigenous  principle,  acting  upon  the  vital  medullary 
fyftem  of  young  people,  explain  why  they  are  more 
fubject  to  fevers  of  the  order  of  phlegmafia?,  as  well  as 
to  confumptions ;  while  thofe  of  advanced  years  labour 
under  indigeftion,  &c.  and  many  difeafes  of  the  clafs  of 
neurofes-,  partly  from  a  worn-out  excitability,  and 
partly  from  a  deficiency  of  the  vivifying  and  invigorat- 
ing ftimulus  that  oxigene  affords. 


CURE. 


THE  cure  of  confumption,  if  what  has  been  ad- 
vanced be  founded  in  truth,  muft  depend  upon  a  re- 
newal of  the  fubftance  or  fubftances  that  the  fyftem  is 
fuppofed  to  have  loft :  and  that  carbone  or  charcoal  is 
the  principal  abfent  material  in  phthifis,  which  forms 
the  connection  or  bond  of  union  between  the  other  in- 
gredients, mall  be  endeavoured  to  be  made  apparent 
by  the  numerous  facts  which  we  fhall  now  confider. 

It  appears  that  carbone  is  the  principal  loft  material 
constituting  our  flefh  and  fat,  not  only  by  the  analyfis 
already  related,  but  alfo  from  the  great  debility,  and 
on  the  contrary  from  the  increafe  of  ftrength  obfervable 
when  it  is  fo  exhibited  as  to  re-enter,  and  form  again  a 

confiderabte 


(     33     ) 

confiderable  proportion  of  our  flefhy  fabric ;  and  it 
feems  to  be  by  the  agency  of  the  fame  material  that 
the  preient  complaint  is  either  palliated  or  removed, 
even  when  ulceration  of  the  lungs  takes  place :  it  would 
alio  appear  to  be  on  this  doctrine  of  carbonating  the 
fyftem,  that  we  are  to  explain  the  popular  opinion  of 
longevity  being  moPc  frequent,  and  the  benefit  patients 
in  phthifis  experience  by  living  in  places  where  this  gas 
is  abundant.*  It  is  even  faid  too,  there  have  been  in- 
stances of  people  in  confirmed  confumption  being  en- 
tirely cured  by  occupations  where  this  gas  is  consider- 
ably evolved,  fucli  as  from  lime-kilns,  breweries,  tan- 
yards,  &c.  &c. 

That  carbonic  acid  gas  has  been  beneficial  in  con- 
fumption, receives  further  corroboration  from  the  ex- 
periments of  Percival,  who,  having  exhibited  it  to  many 
of  his  phthifical  patients  by  way  of  refpiration,  fays, 
"  the  hectic  fever  has  in  feveral  instances  been  generally 
abated,  and  the  matter  expectorated  has  become  lefs 
oitenfive  and  better  digefted."-f-  This  operation  of 
the  gas  may  perhaps  yield  an  eafy  explanation-, — on 
infpiration  it  may  have  a  power  of  diminiihing  the  irri- 
tability of  the  lungs,  which  it  may  effect  by  abforbing  a 
large  proportion  of  their  oxigene.,  which  has  been  con- 
fidered  above  as  constituting  this  quality  j  and  alfo,  on 

being 

*  i  Percival's  Eff.  p.  460. — It  is  faid,  that  confumptive  patients  in  Ger- 
many are  ordered  to  be  placed  in  (tables,  among  their  horfes,  cattle,  &c.  from 
which  practice  they  experience  great  relief:  and  on  the  fame  principle  are  we 
to  explain  the  benefit  fuch  patients  have  received  from  the  burning  of  refias, 
&c.  in  clofe  apartments. 

■f  1  EiT.  p.  3083  and  x  Prieftley,  &c.  p.  301.  Append. 


C     39     ) 

being  received  into  the  fyftem,  there  will  be  a  fixation 
of  a  part  of  it,  and  as  the  oxigene  will  be  as  it  were 
neutralized,  the  prefence  of  it  will  thus  be  no  longer 
active.  It  will  alfo  operate  beneficially  by  reducing  the 
quantity  of  pure  gas  inhaled  at  each  dilatation  of  the 
lungs,  and  confequently  diminifh  the  quantity  of  the 
principle  of  acidity  derived  to  the  blood  and  thence  to 
the  folids  and  fecreted  humours,  from  that  fource. 

While  this  procefs  is  going  on,  or  as  the  fyftem  fhall 
become  again  more  carbonated,  there  will  of  ccnfe- 
quence  be  an  alteration  in  the  purulent  matter  through 
which  the  gas  is  received  •,  and  this  too  feerris  to  be  by 
the  pus  there  formed  pofTeffing  a  more  fiuid  or  having 
a  lefs  tenacious  confiftence,  and  being  more  offenfive 
before  than  after  the  exhibition  of  this  remedy :  the 
operation  of  the  carbonic  acid  gas,  then,  in  thefe  laft 
fymptoms,  is  probably  by  its  becoming  united  with  part 
of  the  hydrogene,  which  before  was  not  wholly  com- 
bined with  the  fmall  quantity  of  carbone  forming  the 
purulent  compound  •,  but  its  now  becoming  united  with 
the  fuper-abundant  hydrogene,  the  pus  will  take  on  a 
more  tenacious  and  firm  confiftence ;  and  in  proportion 
as  this  fhall  be  effected  will  the  offenfivenefs  of  expectora- 
tion diminifh  •,  for  it  would  feem,  that  the  great  quantity 
of  caloric  at  firft  carried  by  the  oxigene  in  a  ftate  of 
combination,  and  there  partly  extricated,  mould  eafily 
volatilize  the  hydrogene,  azote,  and  other  fubftances 
with  which  they  were  united,  and  which  were  probaMy 
in  fuch  flight  attachment  that  they  might  be  eafily  de- 
compounded, and  forming  other  combinations,  fuch  as 


(     40    J 

phofphorated  or  carbonated  hydrogene  gaffes,  &c.  be 
thus  volatilized  by  the  agency  of  thermometric  caloric. 
This  being  the  cafe,  while  circumftances  continue  in  the 
above  fituation,  the  pus  muft  naturally  he  changed 
when  the  charbonic  acid  gas  fhall  be  exhibited,  which 
requires  a  greater  quantity  of  caloric  to  fufpend  it  than 
the  other  gaffes,  and  which,  when  it  fhall  combine  as 
already  mentioned  and  render  the  difcharge  more  fixed, 
muff;  of  neceffity  prevent  any  further  decompofition, 
and  will  caufe  it  to  be  a  more  mild  and  digeftive  pus. 
This  may  alfo  with  equal  propriety  hold  good  with  uK 
cers  on  tile  external  furface  of  our  bodies,  which  are 
well  known  to  receive  much  injury  from  expofure  to 
air;  and  as  the  good  effects  of  applications  to  them, 
containing  the  elements  by  which  this  gas  is  formed, 
have  long  been  experienced,  it  may  not,  perhaps,  be 
unworthy  of  trial  to  expofe  fuch  ulcers  to  an  atmof- 
phere  of  this  gafeous  fluid. 

But  the  infpiration  of  the  carbonic  acid  gas  is  not 
the  only  way  by  which  the  fyftem  may  regain  its  loft 
ingredient,  for  it  may  alfo  be  received,  and  pofiibly  with 
more  effect,  from  fuch  fubftances  being  taken  for  food 
or  drink  as  contain  it,  viz.  animal  food,  malt  liquors, 
&c.  all  of  which  poffefs  but  a  fmall  quantity  of  the  ox- 
igenous  principle :  and  hence,  by  the  employment  of 
this  diet,  the  carbone,  azote,  &c.  of  which  they  are 
compofed,  may  eafily  be  received  into  the  fyftem  by 
the  oper?tion  of  the  chylopoietic  vifcera. 

That  this  treatment  is  juft  and  proper  is  further  con- 
firmed by  the  experience  of  convalefcents  and  emaciated 

perfons, 


(     4i     ) 

perfons,  who  fometimes  grow  fat  even  to  obefity,  itn- 
lefs  there  mould  exifr.  fome  mefenteric  obftruction. 
This  increafe  of  corpulency  may  not  unlikely  be  effected' 
by  means  of  the  hydrogene  that  ftill  remained  in  the 
emaciated  habit,  which,  upon  the  admiffion  of  a  frefh. 
fupply  of  carbone,  united  with  it  and  formed  the  feba- 
ceous  compound  ■,  and  this  may  have  been  the  cafe  with 
thofe  perfons  who  recovered  from  the  yellow  fever  in 
Philadelphia,  many  of  whom,  it  has  been  faid,  were 
obferved  to  increafe  in  fatnefs. 

Confumption,  however,  may  not  be  the  only  difeafe, 
for  haemoptyfis  itfelf  would  likewife  feem  in  a  conflder- 
able  degree  explainable  on  the  doctrine  of  a  hyper-ox- 
igenation  of  the  fyftem,  without  having  recourfe  to  the 
ordinary  way  of  attributing  it  chiefly  to  a  mechanical 
incapacity  of  the  refpiratoiy  organs,  or  to  an  arteriole 
pletbcra;  and  this  receives  confiderable  fupport  from 
patients  in  hssmoptyfis  being  fubjecl:  "  to  much  fenfi- 
bility  and  irritability" — the  ingenium  praecox  Boer- 
haavii — as  alio  from  the  inflammatory  diathefis  that 
generally  prevails,  from  the  heat  and  fenfe  of  pain  in 
the  breaft,  from  the  floridity  of  the  blood,  rednefs  and 
flu/hi ngs  of  the  cheeks,  &c.  all  which  feem  to  corro- 
borate the  analogy  between  the  two  difeafes;  and  as 
they  fo  conftantly  concur  in  each,  a  conclusion  might 
be  inferred,  that  ha;moptyfi3  mould  be  considered  as 
an  incipient  phthifis. 

This  explanation  of  haimoptyfis  likewife  receive? 
further  confirmation  from  the  known  good  confequeu- 
ces  that  rcfult  in  port  from  the  fame  plan  of  cure;  fuch 

K  *3 


as  fea- voyages,  which  feem  to  have  been  known  even 
in  the  time  of  Pliny,  as  he  fays,  "  for  the  phthific  or 
confumption  there  is  nothing  fo  good  as  to  fail  or  be 
rowed  upon  the  water,  efpecially  upon  the  feaj"*  and 
the  fame  naturalift,  in  another  place,  fpeaks  more  di- 
rectly in  point,  as  appears  from  the  following  obferva- 
tion  he  makes : — "  The  fea  (fays  he)  afFordeth  other 
ufes  in  feveral  and  many  refpecls;  but  principally  its 
air  is  wholefome  to  thofe  that  are  in  a  phthific  or  con- 
fumption, as  I  have  before  faid,  and'cureth  fuch  as 
reach  and  void  blood  upwards :  and  truly,  I  remember 
of  late,  that  Annseus  Gallio,  after  he  was  made  conful, 
took  this  method,  namely,  to  fail  upon  the  fea  for  that 
infirmity.  What  think  you  is  the  caufe  that  many 
make  voyages  into  iEgypt?  Surely  it  is  not  for  the  air 
of  iEgypt  itfelf,  but  becaufe  they  lie  long  at  fea,  and  are 
failing  a  great  while  before  they  arrive  thither. "-£■ 

Thefe  facts  of  Pliny's  are  conftantly  confirmed  by 
the  daily  experience  of  mariners,  who  are  'feldom  or 
never  fubject  to  confumption.  The  good  effects  of 
navigation,  however,  do  not  appear  to  arife  entirely 
from  the  air  of  the  fea,  but  alfo  from  the  provifion  ufed 
during  the  voyage,  which  is  that  of  the  animal  kind; 
and  hence  probably  the  reafon,  together  with  the  little 
exercife  they  take,  why  mariners  are  more  corpulent 
than  men  who  live  on  more ;  for  this  fpecies  of  food 
not  only  produces  corpulency,  but  alfo  a  fcorbutic  flate 
of  the  fyfiem,  which,  with  the  impurity  of  the  air  of- 
tentimes 

*  Nat.  Hift.  torn.  1.  lib.  zZ.  cap.  4.  E. 
•J-  Lib.  31.  cap.  6.  L, 


(     43     ) 

tentimes  below  and  between  decks,  affords  Iefs  of  tlie 
refpirable  portion  to  the  lungs  in  each  infpiration :  and 
fince  mips,  by  means  of  Dr.  Hales,  have  been  fo  venti- 
lated that  the  air  may  have  a  free  paffage  through  them, 
the  fcurvy,  which  before  made  fuch  ravages,  has  been 
lefs  frequent  in  its  appearance  and  lefs  fatal  in  its  effects. 

Since,  from  all  that  has  been  faid,  it  is  clearly- 
evident,  that  both  hasmoptyfis  and  phthifis  are  induced 
according  as  there  (hall  be  prefent  an  excefs  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  acidity  in  the  fyftem,  then  certainly  all  thoie 
means  by  which  the  fyftem  may  become  fuper-oxige- 
nated  mould  be  avoided,  as  alfo  the  adminiftration  of 
thofe  fubftances  which  have  a  great  attraction  for  it, 
fuch  as  iron,  &c* 

May  it  not  be  afked,  whether  the  ordinary  manage- 
ment of  patients  in  either  of  thefe  complaints,  and  the 
fuccefs  attending  them,  mew  that  they  are  treated  after 
a  method  fuitable  to  their  cure  ?  Daily  experience  de- 
monftrates  the  contrary — hence,  we  mould  no  lono-er 
advife  patients  fo  afflicted  to  haften  to  breathe  the 
country  air,  already  made  too  pure  by  vegetable  extri- 
cation-, nor  to  diet  upon  vegetables  and  milk,  or  to 
make  ufe  of  acidulous  drinks  i-f-  but  to  purfue  the  di- 
rect contrary  method  above  laid  down,  if  they  would 
for  a  radical  folution  of  the  difeafe  :  nor  mould 
rfie  cxercife  of  equitation,  &c.  fo  much  boaftcd  of  in 

thefe 

■   May  it  not  in  a  great  degree  be  owing  to  the  pretence  of  iron  that  fome 
mineral  waterv  ate  hurtful  to  confuinptive  patients  ? 

■f  Sub-acid  liquois  alone,  it  it  faid,  have  induced  confumption,  as  haj  been 
•icel  by  Ionic  ladic.,  who,  wi/hing  to  apucar  more  than  what  they  lim- 
.rJinarily  delicate,  hare  made  great  ufe  of  vinegar,  lemonade,  &c. 


(     44     > 

thefe  affections,  be  implicitly  relied  upon,  as  it  is  very 
probable  they  feldom  or  never  do  good  without  the  in- 
tervention of  fome  other  circumftances  not  properly 
attended  to,  and  which  are  agreeable  to  the  doctrine 
above  expreffed:  thus  the  aborigines  of  our  country 
have  fcarcely  ever  been  obferved  to  be  affected  with 
confumption,  which  may  eafily  be  accounted  for,  not 
from  the  exercife  they  take,  but  by  their  living  in  damp 
woods  and  Sleeping  on  the  ground,  where  they  refpire 
lefs  pure  air,  which  laft  alone  has  been  laid  to  cure  the 
difeafe.*  This,  however,  is  not  the  only  thing :  their 
food  too,  which  is  that  of  wild  animals,  contain  confi-- 
derable  of  the  loft  principle  and  but  little  of  the  oxige- 
nous.  So  alfo  may  it  be  with  agriculturalists,  who  not 
only  live  in  a  great  meafure  upon  animal  food,  but  alfo 
receive  the  exhalations  of  the  earth,  by  ploughing,  &c. 
The  riding  on  horfeback,  therefore,  fo  much  recom- 
mended by  Sydenham  and  others,  muft  certainly  be 
Jrurtful  on  the  fingle  confideration  of  there  being  a  lar^ 
ger  volume  of  air  expofed  to  the  fuperhcies  of  the 
lungs  j  and  that  this  is  injurious  may  alfo  be  fufficiently 
confirmed  from  the  benefit  confumptive  patients  receive 
in  warm  climates,  where  the  air  is  not  fo  condenfed, 
and  where  confequently  cast,  par.  lefs  is  breathed. 

The  facts  which  have  been  related  on  the  caufe  and 
cure  of  hasmoptyfls  and  phthifis,  will  receive  farther 

corroboration 


*  Van  Swieten,  in  his  commentaries  on  Boerhaave,  tells  us,  on  the  authority 
of  Solano  de  Luque,  the  fuccefsful  practice  of  the  banos  de  tierra,  or 
earth  baths  in  hectic  fevers  and  confumj>tions?   in  Qrenada,   Andalufia,  aad 

«(:h,er  provinces  of  Spain* 


(     45     ) 

corroboration  from  the  fymptoms  of  the  difeafe  put- 
poled  to  be  next  treated  of,  viz. 

SCURVY. 

Confumption  may  not  only  be  •  explained  on  the 
caufes  above  alledged,  but  alfo  have  a  greater  proba- 
bility of  truth,  from  the  fymptoms  tKat  are  obferved 
to  exift  in  fcorbutus;  for  in  this  difeafe,  in  which  there 
is  a  difoxigmated  ftate  of  the  fyftem,  we  do  not  difcover 
that  remarkable  lofs  of  flefhy  matter,  nor  that  hilarity 
of  mind  or  Acridity  of  the  blood  and  fever,  which  are 
the  fure  concomitants  of  confumption :  on  the  contrary, 
laxity  and  debility  of  the  folids,  palenefs  of  the  counte- 
nance, dark  colour  of  the  blood,  and  above  all,  a  fadnefs 
and  deprefTion  of  fpirits,  appear  fure  pathognomonics 
of  this  complaint:  all  which  fymptoms,  it  mall  be  en- 
deavoured to  be  fhewn,  depend  very  evidently  upon  a 
redundancy  of  carbone  in  the  blood  and  folids,  and 
upon  a  deficiency  of  the  vivifying  and  invigorating  fti- 
mulus  of  oxigenc. 

The  defpondency  of  mind  which  is  always  apparent 
in  fcorbutics,  and  which  is  fo  oppofite  to  what  prevails 
i;i  confumption,  would  feem  eafily  accounted  for,  by 
fuppofing  the  fyftem  to  contain  an  cxcefs  of  carbone, 
which  fhall  attract,  abforb  or  neutralize  moll  of  its  ox- 
B{  and  in  proportion  as  this  fhall  be  effected,  will 
the  production  of  di reel:  debility,  from  the  abftraclion 
cf  fo  powerful  a  flimulus,  approach  to  death  or  non-cx- 
ijlence  of  the  quality  of  life;  for  it  would  appear  in  truth, 
the  fyftem  in  fcurvy  is  as  much  and  as  ftriclly  ju- 

per* 


(     46     ) 

per-carbonated)  as  in  confumption  it  was  faid  to  btfuper- 
cxigenated. 

The  dark  colour  of  the  blood,,  the  vibices  and  ecchy- 
morna  that  make  their  appearance  in  fcurvy,  would, 
from  what  has  been  faid  on  confumption,  feem  to  be 
owing  to  an  abftraffion  of  the  principle  of  acidity  -,  and 
therefore,  as  is  the  difpofition  of  the  fyftem  to  phthifis 
will  the  Acridity  of  the  fanguineous  fluid  appear  •,  and 
of  confequence,  as  there  mail  be  a  deficiency  of  the  above 
fioridifying  principle,  the  materials  entering  the  com-, 
pofition  of  the  blood  muft  exift  nearly  or  quite  in  their 
natural  ftate  and  colour :■  and  this  appears  to  happen  in. 
the  difeafe  under  confideration. 

As  iron  is  the  chief  material  entering  this  circulating 
fluid,  to  which,  in  a  ftate  of  oxidation,  it  owes  its  florid 
appearance  •,  fo  therefore  muft  the  iron  re-afTume  its 
priftine  ftate  and  colour,  when  this  fioridifying  fubftance 
fhall  be  withdrawn  in  any  difeafe  wherein  fubftances 
fhall  be  prefent  which  pofiefs  a  greater  affinity  or  attrac- 
tion for  it  than  the  iron.  This  is  remarkably  eluci-. 
dated  in  fcurvy,  in  which  there  appears  fuch  an  excefs 
of  carbonaceous  matter  as  to  abftract  from  the  iron  all 
its  oxigene,  and  leave  it  nearly  or  perhaps  quite  in  its 
reguline  or  metallic  ftate.  There  is,  however,  another 
way  of  accounting  for  the  dark  colour  of  the  blood,  and 
which  may  poflibly  be  more  conclufive  j — the  carbone 
itfelf,  in  fubftance,  may  enter  the  circulating  mafs,  and 
thus  tinge  it  of  different  fhades,  in  proportion  to  the 
degree  in  which  it  fhall  be  prefent.  This  receives  con- 
siderable confirmation  from  the  obfervations  made  by 

Lord 


(     47     ) 

Lord  Anfon's  furgeons,  who  fay,  that  "  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  difeafe  the  blood,  as  it  flowed  out  of  the 
orifice  of  the  wound,  might  be  feen  to  run  in  different 
fhades  of  light  and  dark  ftreaks.  Where  the  malady 
was  increafed,  it  ran  thin  and  feemingly  very  black;  and 
after  ftanding  fome  time  in  a  vefM,  turned  thick  and 
of  a  dark  muddy  colour.  In  the  third  degree  of  the 
difeafe,  it  came  out  as  black  as  ink.  Laftly,  as  all  other 
kinds  of  haemorrhages  were  frequent  at  the  latter  end 
of  the  calamity,  the  fluid  had  the  fame  appearance  as 
to  colour  and  confidence." 

From  this  account  it  would  appear,  that  oxigene  is 
not  only  abfent  from  the  iron,  but  that  the  carbone  itfelf 
is  floating  in  the  fanguiferous  fyftem,  and  thus  the  blood 
in  the  arterial  is  rendered  of  the  fame  colour  and  com- 
pofition  which  is  exhibited  by  the  venous  blood  in 
health  •,  and  hence  the  latter  muft  be  fo  fully  carbonated 
as  to  lofe  its  connection  with  the  iron  by  this  abftrac- 
tion  of  the  oxigene,  which,  when  in  juft  proportion, 
appears  to  be  a  cementing  principle  fomewhat  fimilar  to 
that  remarked  by  lithologifts  to  exift  in  minerals.  This 
being  the  fact,  it  will  no  long  remain  a  wonder  why  vi- 
bices  and  dark  coloured  effufions  appear  in  fcorbutus. 

The  offenfive  breath  (dyfodia  pulmonica)  and  the 
high  colour  of  feveral  of  the  excretions  in  fcorbutics, 
feem  alfo  to  arife  from  the  new  combinations  that  are 
formed  on  the  decompofitions  above  aliuded  to  •, — part 
of  the  hydrogenc  may  unite  with  the  azote  and  form 
an  ammoniacaj  compound;  or  the  azote  may  combine 
with  a  finall  proportion  of  oxigene  in  fuch  a  way  as  to 

form 


(      4*      } 


form  the  oxyd  of  azote  or  nitrogens-,  or  again,  th8 
hydragene  may  combine  with  the  phofphorus  or  car- 
bone,  and  form  phofphorated  or  carbonated  hydrogene- 
gaffes  -,  and  it  would  feein  to  be  by  thefe  different  com-* 
binations  varioufly  modified,  that  not  only  the  above 
fymptorns  of  fcurvy,  but  perhaps  all  cutaneous  erup- 
tions, difeafes,  or  ulcers  whatsoever,  in  which  there  ap- 
pears to  be  an  acrimony  of  the  circulating  fluids,  fuch 
as  fcrophula,  erifipelas,  lepra,  cancer,  &c."  are  to  be 
explained :  and  by  thefe  various  modified  combinations 
perhaps  alfo  every  fpecies  of  contagious  matter  what- 
foever  may  be  generated  or  produced  in  animal  and 
vegetable  bodies. 

That  fcurvy  is  the  direct  effect  of  fuper-carbonation 
of  the  fyftem,  is  further  proved  from  the  experience  of 
thofe  who  are  obliged  to  live  principally  upon  animal 
food,  efpecially  that  which  is  in  a  ftate  of  putrefcence, 
which  every  one  knows  is  already  in  an  incipient  de- 
compofition,  and  hence  may  the  more  readily  yield  its 
carbone  in  the  digeitive  procefs.  Many  more  facts* 
however,,  might  be  adduced,  if  it  were  neceuary,  to 
fupport  what  has  already  been  advanced  concerning  the 
tendency  of  animal  food  to  induce  fcurvy;  fuch,  fof 
inPcance,  as  what  has  been  related  by  Sinopceus,  who 
obferves,  "  there  are  whole  nations  in  Tartary,  who  live 
altogether  on  flefh  and  milk,  and  which  people  (fays  he) 
are  fubject  to  the  moft  violent  fcurvics.53* 

Thefe  are  not  the  only  caufes  to  which  fcurvy  has 
been  attributed,  for  many  consider  cold  and  mcifHtre  as 

highly 

*  Parerga  Medica,  p,  jtj, 


(     49     ) 

highly  conducive  to  the  difeafe.  Thefe  opinions,  how- 
ever, are  confiderably  doubtful,  unlefs  they  mould  be 
conceived  as  inducing  their  ill  effects  in  the  way  Sandlo- 
rius  afferts  ;  "for  (fays  he)  too  cold  windy  or  wet 
weather  lefTens  perfpiration;"*  and  the  perfpiration 
being  thus  obftructed,  he  goes  on — "  it  converts  the 
matter  of  tranfpiration  into  an  ichor,  which  being  re- 
tained, induces  a  cachexy. "-f  Sanctorius  appears  fome- 
what  juft  in  his  conclufions,  by  fuppoftng  and  deferr- 
ing what  he  thought  humidity  of  the  air  as  favouring 
the  difeafe,  which  conclufions  he  drew  from  his  ftatical 
experiments,  wherein  he  further  relates,  concerning  this 
obstructed  excretion  in  fcurvy,  "  that  here  perfpiration 
is  flopped,  the  pafTages  of  it  clogged,  the  fibres  are  re- 
laxed-, and  the  tranfpiration  of  it  retained  proves  hurt- 
ful."J  But  thefe  latter  affertions  of  Sanctorius  cart 
only  be  partially  admitted  as  caufes  of  fcorbutus;  foe 
it  would  appear,  that  cold  air  was  not  alone  the  caufe, 
but  if  any  thing  rather  beneficial,  agreeable  to  what  has 
been  already  obferved  on  confumption,  in  which  com- 
plaint experience  gives  great  atteftation  in  favour  of  a 
warm  climate;  and  for  directly  contrary  reafons  mufc 
it  be  beneficial  in  this,  becaufe  of  there  being  a  greater 
quantity  of  oxigene  air  received  into  the  fyftem  by  or- 
dinary refpiration  in  a  cold  climate,  where  the  atmof- 
phere  is  more  condenfed,  than  in  a  warm  one,  where  it 
is  more  rarificd :  and  confequently  the  fyftem  will  ftand. 
G  a  greater 

•   Mcelicin.i  Statica.   aoh.  203. 
•f-   Ibid.   atih.  1^6. 
X   Ibirfi  aph.  14;, 


(     5o     ) 

a  greater  chance  of  becoming  oxigenated  in  the  former 
than  in  the  latter. 

As  to  the  obftruclred  cuticular  or  pulmonic  exhala- 
tions being  considered  another  caufe  of  fcurvy,  thefe 
likewife  would  not  feem  altogether  fatisfadtory,  unlefs 
the  fyftem  fhould  be  in  a  ftate  of  predijpojition,  by  be- 
ing already  fuper-carbonated,  and  then  all  that  experi- 
enced man  has  faid  may  be  admitted ;  for  in  this  Irate 
of  fuper-carbonation,  when  the  cuticular  excretion 
ihall  be  obstructed  and  retained,  will  all  the  fubltances 
the  perfpirable  vapour  contained  become  in  fome  de- 
gree fixed,  or  form  other  combinations. 

As  it  appears  that  carbone  is  a  prevalent  ingredient 
of  the  flefhy  parts  of  ou  1  -dies,  it  confequently  muft 
exift  alfo  in  a  considerable  r  "oportion  in  the  above  ex- 
cretion ;  and  that  this  is  fad:,  has  been  proved  by  the 
experiments  of  the  Count  de.Milly  and  others,  who 
have  collected  large  quantities  of  carbonic  acid  gas  dur- 
ing its  evolution  from  the  furface  of  the  body :  this 
gas,  then,  being  retained  in  the  fyftem,  is  very  ob- 
viouily  an  additional  help  to  a  difeafe  depending  upon 
too  much  of  the  fame  material.  This  explanation  is 
further  conclusive  on  the  consideration  that  obstructed 
perfpiration  is  not  alone,  but  that  fuper-carbonation  of 
the  fyftem  is  alfo  a  caufe  of  fcurvy ;  and  this  is  agree- 
able to  the  above  obfervation  of  Sinopceus;  for  the 
food  of  thofe  people,  although  they  lived  near  the  fri- 
gid zone,  yielded  the  noxious  material. 

The  doctrine  of  fuper-carbonation  of  the  fyftem  is 
ftill  further  Strengthened  from  there  appearing  no  febrile 

heat 


(     5i     ) 

heat  in  fcurvy,  which  is  known  to  exift,  in  a  consider- 
able degree,  in  phthirls ;  as  alio  from  the  circulation 
being  languid,  and  from  the  torpor  and  debility  cf  all 
the  functions, — vital,  animal  and  natural,  which  fully 
demonftrate  a  deficiency  of  the  vivifying  power  of  ox- 
igene. 

The  Deliquia,  too,  attending  fcurvy,  feem  ftrongly 
to  argue  the  deleterious  agency  of  carbone,  when  it 
exifts  internally,  as  well  as  when  it  is  applied  externally, 
in  the  ftate  of  gas,  in  too  great  quantities,  to  parts  pof- 
fefling  much  irritability ;  as  it  may,  by  its  direEi  inter* 
nal  application  to  the  vital  "  medullary  nervous  matter 
and  mufcular  folid,"  abftradt  from  them  the  principle 
that  gave  them  irritability  •,  and  hence,  in  proportion  to 
the  degree  in  which  this  application  fhall  be  made,  will 
the  flate  of  inanimation,  or  the  torpor  and  debility  of 
the  folids,  whether  vital  or  animal,  be  produced-,  and 
this  abstraction  of  the  oxigenous  principle,  if  carried  to 
the  greateft  degree,  will,  by  inducing direft  debility,  caufe 
cejfation  of  animal  exiflence  altogether,  and  this  as  effec- 
tually as  in  the  oppofite  State  of  the  fyftem,  when,  by 
the  too  great  prefence  of  the  oxigene,  the  animal  is 
ftiimdated  to  death. 

That  the  carbonaceous  principle,  when  in  too  great 
accumulation  in  the  fyftem,  poflirfTes  a  power  of  ex- 
tinguishing its  fufceptibility  of  ftimuli  altogether,  is 
a  fad  clearly  demonstrated  by  the  weaknefs  and  feeble- 
nefs  of  the  pulfe,  by  the  whole  fyftem  of  folids  being 
in  a  weakened  and  relaxed  condition,  and  even  by  the 
putridity  of  the  heart  itfelf.* 

The 

*   Lind  on  Scurvy,  p.  31a. 


(     5*     ) 

The  conclufion,  then,  from  all  that  has  been  de- 
livered, feems  clearly  apparent,  that  fcurvy  originates 
from  the  fame  caufes  both  upon  land  and  fea,  and  ap- 
pears to  be  the  fame  difeafe  ever  fince  the  firft  account 
we  have  of  it  on  the  latter  by  Vafco  de  Gama  ;*  and 
therefore,  "  if  the  axioms  for  the  ftudy  of  nature,  in 
the  material  inanimate  world,  be  alfo  applicable  to  the 
various  modes  of  life  and  organization,"  then  we  may 
underftand  why  "  effects  of  the  fame  kind  may  be 
afcribed  to  the  fame  caufes  -,  and  the  qualities  of  phe- 
nomena difcovered  by  experiments,  may  be  confidered 
as  univerfal  qualities  of  phenomena  of  the  fame  kind," 
in  difeafes  of  the  human  confutation,  as  well  as  in 
other  cafes. 

To  put  the  matter,  however,  beyond  the  porlibility 
of  doubt,  that  they  are  both  induced  by  the  fame  iden- 
tical caufe,  viz.  fuper-carbonation  of  the  fyftem,  the 
method  of  cure  will  in  both  appear  to  be  the  fame,  that 
is,  exactly  fimilar  to  the  common  practice  which  in- 
duces confumption.-f 


CURE. 
FROM  the  foregoing  obfervations,  fcorbutus  ap- 
pears to  be  a  difeafe  exifting  only  in  proportion  as  the 

fyftem 

*  See  the  Hiftory  of  the  Portuguefe  Difcoveries,  Sec.  by  Herman  Lopez  de 
Caftanneda. 

•f  That  the  fymptoms  of  fcurvy  above  enumerated  are  pofitive  fa£ls  may 
beevinced  from  confidering  the  cafe  of  the  p.uer  ceruleatus  of  Sandifort, 
as  related  In  the  *'  Obfervationes  Anatomico-Pathologicas,  Lugd.Batav.  1777, 
p.  11.  &  feq."  which  cafe  is  alfo  quoted  by  Beddoes,  in  his  "  Obfervations  on 
the  Nature  and  Cure  of  Calculus,  Sea-Scurvy,1'  &c.  p.  63,  but  which  is  too 
lengthy  for  infertion  in  a  publication  of  this  kind. 


(     S3    5 

fyftem  fhall  be  carbonated,  or  as  it  fhall  be  in  a  condi- 
tion oppofite  to  that  which  exifts  in  confumption,  and 
therefore,  to  obtain  a  radical  cure,  muft  neceffarily  be 
treated  by  contrary  remedies. 

The  firft  and  moft  powerful  remedy  calculated  to 
effect  a  fpeedy  cure  appears  to  be  that  of  oxigene  air,  • 
received  by  refpiration  -,  and  this  will  the  more  fully 
be  under  flood,  when  we  confider  that  it  is  the  only 
"  breath  of  life"  as  all  the  other  gaffes  either  cannot 
fupport,  or  immediately  deflroy  the  living  quality  of 
organized  matter.  As  this  is  a  condition  of  the  fyflem 
in  which  life  approaches  nearly  to  a  ilate  of '  non-exiftence, 
that  nourifhing  principle  or  fupport  of  life  is  therefore 
required  which  the  ancients  denominated  pabulum 
vita',  for  Hippocrates  pofitively  fays,  "  Principium  alh 
menii  fpiritus."*  This  pabulum  vita,  or  breath  of  life, 
then,  which  is  efferitial  to  animal  exiflence,  we  find  in 
the  bafe  of  oxigene  air,  the  operation  of  which  animat- 
ing flimulus,  as  foon  as  it  is  received  into  the  fyflem 
of  patients  in  this  moribund  complaint,  will,  on  its  de- 
compofition,  diffufe  heat,  life  and  vigour  throughout 
the  conflitution. 

Next  to  this  empyrean  gas,  which  is  proved  to  pcffefs 
the  only  principle  by  which  the  quality  of  animation  can 
be  excited  in  organized  matter  of  the  human  type, 
poffeffmg  a  fufceptibility  of  its  flimulus,  we  mould 
feek  for  thofe  fubflances  that  contain  the  oxigenous 
principle  in  the  greatefl  quantity,  having  at  the  fame 
time  fuch  a  flight  attachment  for  it,  that  this  animating 

ftimulant 

•  Hippocrat.  dc  Alim.  v.  68, 


flimulant  may  be  difengaged,  and  thus  enter  the  fyf- 
tem  by  the  primse  vise,  as  well  as  when  it  is  received 
in  the  manner  above  expreffed. 

It  has  been  obferved,  that  fome  of  the  mineral 
acids  do  not  cure  the  fcurvy  fo  fpeedily  as  the  acetous, 
citric,  oxalic,  tartaric,  &c.  this,  however,  is  eafily 
underload,  for  the  oxigene  in  thofe  acids  appears  to 
be  in  fuch  firm  combination  with  their  radicals  as  not 
to  fuffer  decompofition  like  the  vegetable  clafs. 

Of  all  vegetables  the  Citrus  {lands  firft  on  the  lift 
in  the  cure  of  this  difmal  and  deadly  difeafe ;  and  it  is 
to  this  alone  that  Lord  Anfon  attributes  the  cure  of 
his  men  in  the  ifiand  of  Tinian,  as  well  as  many 
others  who  highly  extol  it;*  and  it  is  upon  this  that 
Kramer  folely  relies. -f 

The  citrus  having  been  long  experienced  to  be  more 
beneficial  than  any  other  vegetable  fubftance,  may  be 
owing  to  its  containing  a  larger  proportion  of  oxigene, 
and  lefs  of  carbone,  azote,  &c.  than  other  plants-,  and 
this  appears  to  be  the  reafon  why  thofe  alfo  of  the  Te- 
tradynamous  clafs  are  greatly  recommended;  for  the 
fmall  proportion  of  azote,  &c.  they  are  found  to  poffefs, 
is  far  more  than  compenfated  for  by  their  exuberance 
of  oxigene. 

Scurvy,  however,  would  not  appear  to  be  the  only 
difeafe  occasioned  by  an  hyper-carbonated  ftate  of  the 
fyftem,  for  many  others,  efpecially  thofe  belonging  to 
the  clafs  of  Neurofes,  feem  to  depend  upon  a  want  of 

the 

*  Mead's  Difcourfc  on  the  Scurvy,  p.  in. 

■f  Krameri  Medicina  Caft'renlis,  part  iii,  cap,  %, 


(     55     ) 

the  vivifying  ftimulus  that  oxigene  affords ;  fuch,  for 
inftance,  are  paralyfis,  fyncope  when  it  arifes  from 
direct  debility,  dyfpepfia,  hypochondriasis,  chloroiis, 
tetanus,  trifmus,  convulfio,  chorea,  epilepsia,  afthma, 
dyfpnoea  when  it  arifes  from  debility  or  paralyfis  of  the 
mufcles  of  the  larynx,  cholera,  chronic  diarrhoea,  hy- 
fteria,  hydrophobia,  amentia,  melancholia,  and  cholera 
infantum,  &c.  which  laft  feems  to  be  almoft  pofitively 
confirmative  of  this  doctrine  •,  for  "  out  of  many  hundred 
children,"  fays  Rufh,*  "  whom  I  have  fent  into  the 
country  in  every  ftage  of  this  diforder,  I  have  loft  only 
three  •,"  two  of  which,  the  Dr.  fays,  did  not  follow  his 
directions;  and  he  proceeds — "  it  is  extremely  agree- 
able to  fee  the  little  fufferers  revive,  as  foon  as  they 
efcape  from  the  city  air  and  infpire  the  pure  air  of  ths 
country."  A  fact  of  the  fame  nature  was  related  to 
me  by  Profeffor  Smith,  whofe  child  was  very  ill  of  this 
difeafe,  and  grew  better  on  his  leaving  this  city  to  go 
with  it  to  New- Jerfey :  the  paflage  was  at  night,  and 
confequently  the  air  more  condenfed :  the  infant,  which 
was  carried  in  his  arms  in  the  open  air,  was  well  clothed 
to  prevent  the  ill  effects  that  might  perhaps  have  arifen 
from  the  application  of  cold  air  to  the  furface  of  its 
body,  fo  that  the  face  only  could  be  expofed,  and  hence 
the  operation  of  the  air  could  only  have  been  on  the 
refpiratory  organs.-f  That  the  cure  depends  upon  the 
influence  of  oxigene  is  further  evident  from  the  ufe  of 
acids,  cfpecialJy  the  vegetable;  for  Profefibr  Smith  had 

two 

*  i.  Med.  Inq.   p.  118. 

f  Many  more  fafclj  might  b«  adduced  of  the  beneficial  efFc&i  of  country  air 
from  the  obfervationj  of  I'rofcirori  Hamtrllcy,  Rjd^cis,  &c. 


(     56     ) 

two  patients  that  were  immediately  cured  by  the  ufe 
of  the  acetous  acid,*  a  proportion  of  which  was  taken 
without  his  knowledge,  and  the  cure  effected  much  to 
his  furprife.  Vegetable  acids  probably  operate  in  the 
way  related  of  them  in  the  cure  of  fcurvy. 

All  the  fymptoms  of  typhus  feem  alfo  evidently  to 
depend  upon  its  abfence-,  and  it  is  highly  probable,  if 
oxigene  air  mould  be  adminiftered  by  way  of  refpira- 
tion,  there  would  be  happy  confequences  arifing  from 
its  exhibition ;  and  this  is  rendered  evident  from  the 
common  practice  of  hanging  up  or  placing  young  and 
vigorous  plants  in  the  apartments  of  thofe  labouring 
under  the  difeafe-,  for  mch  plants  not  only  perfpire  a 
large  quantity  of  vital  gas,  but  alfo  inhale  the  mephitic. 
The  efficacy  of  acids  alio,  efpecially  the  vegetable,  as 
pofTefling  the  property  above  related,  is  likewife  to  be 
accounted  for  on  the  fame  principle. 

On  the  contrary,  the  clafs  of  Cachexias,  as  well  as  that 
of  Phlegmafise,  may  depend  upon  an  excefs  of  oxigene; 
as,  anafarca,  afcites,  hydrothorax,  &c.  in  which  difeafes 
the  oxigene  may  combine  with  the  hydrogene,  and 
form  theferous  fluids  obfervable  in  them;  and  hence, 
for  contrary  reafons,  the  infpiration  of  carbonic  acid 
and  hydrogene  airs  mull  be  very  ferviceable.  The 
remarkable  lofs  of  fat  in  the  omentum,  vifcera,  &c. 
renders  it  frill  more  probable  that  thefe  difeafes  depend 
upon  a  too  high  oxigenated  fyftem. 

Should  what  has  been  advanced  hereafter  prove 
true,  it  would  feem  necefTary  that  a  new  Nofological 

arrangement 

*  Perhaps  the  acid  may  have  had  a  phyfiologica!  as  well  as  a  chemical  aC.ion. 


(     57     J 

arrangement  of  difeafes  fhould  be  formed,  and  clafTed,: 
according  as  they  are  induced,  either  by  an  excefs  of 
oxio-enation,  or  by  the  different  ratios  of  proportion 
which  the  feveral  ingredients,  oxigene,  hydrogene,  car- 
bone,  iron,  &c.  bear  to  each  oth$r  in  our  constitutions. 

It  may  not  be  improper  here  to  obferve,  that  if,  in 
the  living  human  body,  (and  all  others,  perhaps)  de- 
compositions and  new  combinations  mail  take  place,  as 
has  been  above  endeavoured  to  be  made  apparent, 
then  it  may  not  be  difficult  to  conceive  that  the  Humo- 
ral Pathology,  which  has  of  late  been  in  fome  meafure 
exploded,  mail  receive  fome  cogent  arguments  in  its 
favour-,  for,  according  as  the  above  related  decomposi- 
tions and  new  combinations  mail  enfue,  will  great  al- 
teration take  place  in  the  circulating  humours,  which 
in  their  peccant  proportions  may  induce  difeafes  and 
death-,  and  the  correction  and  adjustment  of  the  pro- 
portions of  which  is  unquestionably,  in  many  cafes, 
one  of  our  rational  indications  of  cure. 

In  tracing  all  difeafes,  therefore,  to  thefolids  alone, 
as  Milman  has  done,  (who  feems  almost,  to  have  confi- 
dered  the  fluids  as  ufelefs  parts  of  the  constitution)  there 
is  certainly  a  radical  error. 

Since,  therefore,  decompositions  and  new  combina- 
tions, varioufly  modified,  are  constantly  taking  place 
throughout  animate  as  well  as  inanimate  matter,  and  of 
which  we  have  fuch  manifold  experience,  it  would  feem, 
that  a  doubt  could  fcarcely  reft  with  any  one,  that 
each  and  every  of  us,  have,  or  fhall  participate  of  the 
different  modes  of  existence  that  matter,  organized  or 
1 1  inorganized, 


C     5'*     ) 

Inorganked,  affumes  m  the  different  grades  of  creation 
~—fro'm  man  to  the  lithophyte*-~from  "  the  cedar  that  is 
in  Lebanon  to  the  byjfop  that  fpringeth  out  of  the  wall" 
—from  the  mite  to  the  elephant: — thus  fubftantiating 
the  fayings  made  of  old— 

"  Quocumque  flexeris  te,  habebis  ibi  DEUM 

occurrentem  tibi :  nihil  vacat  ab  illo,  ipfe  implet  opus 

fuum." — — - 

.     ."  JUPITER  eft  quodcunque  vides,  quocun- 

que  moveris." 

"  The  fyftem  one,  one  Maker  ftands  confefs'd; 
"  The  prime,  the  one,  the  wond'rous  and  the  bleftg 
"  The  one  on  various  forms  of  UNITY  exprefs'd.'* 


*  "  Thou  almoft  mak'ft  me  waver  in  my  faith 
To  hold  opinion  with  Pythagoras, 
That  souls  of  animals  infufe  themfelves 
Into  the  trunks  of  men." 


FINIS. 


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